Need help with making model smooth and round

Alright so this is really my first attempt at this program and I am stuck on how to model what I have better. I am trying to make a model rocket but it is based off the Toy Story Pizza Planet rocket. All I am trying to get into a 3D file is the body of the rocket. I can make the fins later out of wood. I imported the image I have of the rocket and I sketched out the lines but when I use push/pull it doesn’t keep a nice contour of the shape. I need this to be, well, smooth and round all around it. Here is an image of what is happening. Do any of you know how to model it better? I know this may seem like a lot but I am truly stuck.

It looks as if you should be using the Follow Me Tool instead of Push/Pull. Draw the shape of half the rocket, add a circle as the path for the Follow Me Tool; be sure the center of the circle aligns with the straight center of the rocket shape. Click on the circle to highlight it, then click on the rocket shape. You can then use Push/Pull to make recesses for the fins.

That helped but I guess my lines were not as smooth so I still have edges.

Any way I can get my lines better?

You can soften the edges. Select all of the geometry, right click and choose Soften/Smooth. Adjust the slider as needed. If you need to to be smoother yet, use more segments to draw the curve. The curve you’ve drawn is pretty coarse.

Also don’t forget to correct the face orientation. The blue faces indicate you’ve got the back faces out.

Oh that helped a lot. I actually decided to re-trace it.

Do you know how I can separate the nose cone?

Not the answer to what you’re asking, but you should note that your faces are reversed. Triple click the model and then right click / Reverse Faces. It should become lighter in color.

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Well now I am stuck again. I have a hole on the top. I can’t seem to make a circle connect it.

Does that mean you want the nose cone to be separable? That is, do you want to be able to detach and reattach it? If so, the rocket body and nose cone should be separate groups (or components) so they don’t stick together. Indeed, since things sticking together is one of SU’s basic behaviors, you should really fabricate the two pieces separately from the outset.

-Gully

Looks like you ran the follow me on a profile that didn’t start at the center of your path circle. This will create a tube through the center as shown in your image.

Oh that is what I figured. I would have to make them separate. Well, it is good practice. I have a learned a lot already. Pretty nice for my first day. Okay so I need to make the circle completely centered. I have trouble moving it.

Draw the circle centered on the origin and the profile(s) so the centerline is on the appropriate axis.

Take note of how I placed my circle in the gif, I hovered over the corner of the rectangle to make it know I wanted to use that point, then I move the cursor down and you can see the inference lines. Because I was looking slightly down on the model the circle tool turned blue indicating I was on the axis and aligned with the corner of the rectangle.

One trick to understanding how to move things. Don’t try to click and drag them. Click and release on a specific point, such as a corner or center, this will attach the object to your cursor so you can move around, zoom in zoom out orbit etc until you click again to place it.

Enjoyed the help offered. Can you help with my bathtub that is in need of a skin? All attempts are evading me in as much as all center points are different.bathtub.skp (430.0 KB)

One approach would be to segment the end and side profiles into equal segments and then use the endpoints of the segments to define the end-points of each “layer” to be used with the extrusion and scale tool:

There are a number of videos about how to do this … here’s one more:

While the final extrusion doesn’t quite match the top outline, it’s close. Depending on what’s important to you, you could start with the top profile and work your way down. This seems somewhat tedious, but it took less than 15 minutes total … the outside profile should take about the same or less. I’ve attached the model here:

bathtub_jh.skp (694.7 KB)

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Thank You. It just goes to show you that when you think outside the tub the level of stress just drains away.
However, at the end, where you made it smooth. That did not float to the surface very well, it was off screen, the cursor movements were beyond viewing. Can you elaborate on the tools or techniques a little more?
And may an elephant caress you with his toes.

I apologize for visually leaving out some of the menus I clicked on. Initially, I grouped all of your geometry into a new group leaving out the bottom inner surface and put them on another layer. The first off-screen move at 3:30 was to turn off visibility for the second layer which hid everything except what I had newly created on Layer 0. At 3:47 I accidentally deleted one too many surfaces and used Ctrl-Z to undo the last delete. At 4:03 I went off-screen to select the “Soften/Smooth Edges” option to smooth the result. I created the video as an aid to explaining the process which is harder to do in words alone (I posted it on YouTube because it was too large to upload to the forum).

If it looks like this approach will work for your project and you need additional clarification, let me know.

[added]

I re-worked your model and used 10 layers 2.5" thick for the inside and 10 layers 2.9" thick for the outside. If this is for visual rendering or presentation, it should be fine. However, if it is to be 3D printed, thinner layers should be used. I’ve attached the new version of the model … your original geometry is on Layer 1 and my layer lines are on Layer 2. I’ve grouped the final result on Layer 0.

bathtub_jh2.skp (1.6 MB)

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