Extrude a profile along a path with a Y.

[scrapper400]

Hi there,

I'm currently trying to model the airways in the lungs which start as an inverted Y and then branch to smaller and smaller diameters. My best way to deal with the gradually reducing diameters is to draw a guide curve and put a plane perpendicular to the curve at each point of the polyline. Then I draw a circle on each plane centred on the guide curve and use loft to join them. I then shell everything by selecting the first circle on the curve.

Works a treat, if I was modelling something like the intestines. But my problem is I don't know how to deal with junctions. Is there anyway I can do this by drawing branches on the curve or is there some other easy way to "merge two pipes".

Any tips would be welcome.
Cheers,
Scrap.

[JerryFlyGuy]

You can certainly 'merge' the two pipes by using the combine feature. It would be possible to model all the tubes with the loft function [which should have a 'merge' button down near the bottom of the GUI pane]. You would have to use multiple features of the loft command and after all the tubes are made you could shell them once they are one unified body [one of the last features in the tree].

[scrapper400]

Thanks Jerry,
I'll give that a go.