The loft command is supposed to follow a path if so chosen but I can't get it to follow the path.  I pick the templates in correct order then hit enter as told in help.  This is supposed to bring up another option dialog but instead a loft is created from the picked templates when I am supposed to get the option to pick guide or path.

Hello masterPLans, the LOFT command will joint 2 regions without following any path.If you want to follow a path you will have to use SWEEP along a path or EXTRUDE with the option path.I'm not sure but those 2 commands will not allow you to get an evolutive shape along that path or it will be conformably to some AutoCAD releases.Eventually see my AutoCAD file : 3D_SOLIDS_01.dwg here in the site at the CAD/BIM Blocks library that explains the mains 3D commands.
philippe JOSEPH2023-01-26 08:31:07

Did you specify a guide?  Guides can be 2D polylines with a single segment, 3D polylines, lines, arcs, elliptical arcs, 2D and 3D splines and edges of entities.  From the user's manual comes this bit of advice:To create a lofted solid or surface using guidesChoose Guides.Select guide curves or [Join multiple edges]: Select guide curves to shape the loft; guide curves must intersect each cross section and begin and end at the first and last cross section. Guide curves determine the shape of the resulting three-dimensional entity.To combine multiple edges into a cross section, choose Join multiple edges, then select the edges.John Connor2023-01-26 16:17:32

Hello masterPLans and John, I have tried to have access to that guides option but only found it after the "standard" loft between 2 surfaces and it made the lofted solid disappear.I did the test on my AutoCAD file : 3D_SOLIDS_01.dwg.I had made a 2D polyline as a guide.

Hello masterPLans and John, I have place in the CAD/BIM Blocks library here in the site the AutoCAD file : VELO2009plus+.dwg to show what I can do with EXTRUDE along a path with an angle bur still don't succeed in lofting using guide...I had made this file in 2009 of a 3D bicycle and the EXTRUDE along a path with angle is to modelize the front fork.PLZ help us.

THanks for the answers.I kept working with the loft command in Prodgecad and found that a slightly less complicated example worked so I assume that my first try had an error in it.  Maybe I was trying to loft an impossibility.

Hello masterPLans and John, I have taken a look at the internet and found answers in a tutorial from  Wolfgang WALDEN : Loft with Guides - Autocad 2020 Training - SurfacesThe "guides" are available with a right clic just after the end of the LOFT command at the right time.I thought that those guides were to LOFT along a path but it's "only" to improve the tranformation of the border of the loft from the first to the second shape, for example if your 2 shapes don't have the same number of facets.On the other hand with the LOFT command it's possible to change the "law" of the lofted shape between the 2 shapes by acting on the properties panel ( Ctrl + 1 ).

I thought that those guides were to LOFT along a path but it's "only" to improve the tranformation of the border of the loft from the first to the second shape, for example if your 2 shapes don't have the same number of facets.

I kept working with the loft command in Prodgecad and found that a slightly less complicated example worked so I assume that my first try had an error in it.  Maybe I was trying to loft an impossibility.  https://ppssppgold.one/https://pikashow.fyi/

exactly