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Is there a way I can make a hoop, say, that has a major diameter of 40 mm and has a 2 mm diameter circular profile?

Bevel flattens the sides of the profile and changes the major diameter of the item that is bevelled.

I can’t seem to find a way to extrude along a path and get what I am after.

In addition, the bevel size doesn’t appear to have anything to do with the size of the profile. For example, if I want the hoop to have a 2 mm diameter boundary profile, the bez circle I need to create is 60, 70, 80 mm!

Even then it creates an ellipse and not a circle.

How can I fix this?

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//EDIT: I made the assumption you wanted to create a mesh. If you want a curve solution, you'll find it at the end.

//2. EDIT: Sorry I'm an idiot I somehow thought you wrote circular profile with a diameter of 4 mm... I'll correct the values for the 2 mm version, but the images are still for a diameter of 4 mm.

Mesh version: A hoop with a circular profile? So you mean what is usually called a torus? What about just adding a torus with Shift+A > Mesh > Torus?

Then set Major Radius to 20 mm and Minor Radius to 1 mm in Dimension Mode > Major/Minor or maybe Exterior Radius to 20 mm and Interior Radius to 18 mm in Exterior/Interior mode?

Whereas the Major/Minor example I gave here actually creates an overall diameter of 42 mm instead of 40 mm, I don't know if you want 40 mm overall dimensions or 40 mm from one center of the circular profile to the opposite profile's center.

About the bevel dimensions: I guess you have scaled the object in Object Mode and didn't apply the scale: Ctrl+A > Apply > Scale.

major/minor

exterior/interior

Curve version: If you're instead going to do this with curves, add a curve circle with Shift+A > Curve > Circle. Set the Radius to 20 mm and under Object Data Properties > Geometry > Bevel set a Depth of 1 mm. This also results in an overall width of 42 mm because the radius goes from one profile center to the opposite. If you want an overall width of 40 mm, set the Radius to 19 mm.

curve circle

Excursion: Comparing Dimensions Mode options of the Torus, Major/Minor and Exterior/Interior.

In both modes I created a torus object which is overall 10 m wide in diameter and has a circular ring profile with a diameter of 2 m.

Major/Minor mode:

maj/min

Exterior/Interior mode:

ext/int

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  • $\begingroup$ torus was the best way to go i think, thankyou very much. i gave up on torus in the past because i could work out how to set major and minor diameters.. $\endgroup$
    – Tim N
    Jan 28 at 3:08
  • $\begingroup$ @TimN Did you get a better understanding of the Torus object now or should I add some schematics ? $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Brinkmann
    Jan 28 at 6:40
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And here's an answer regarding curves

Use Bevel > Depth to set a circular profile radius
Use Geometry > Offset to correct your circle size back to 40mm

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Oh, of course, the Offset is a good idea. Better than mine with adjusting the radius beforehand. But you set the Bevel radius, not diameter. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Brinkmann
    Jan 27 at 8:21
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    $\begingroup$ Yo thanks :). I still find blender a bit confusing, not always clear what's radius and diameter $\endgroup$
    – Jachym Michal
    Jan 27 at 8:23
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    $\begingroup$ Most of the time it's radius... and except for the bevel depth it's mostly written down somewhere. Maybe it's easy or more natural to me because when I'm dealing with circular shapes outside of Blender I usually work with the radius, too. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Brinkmann
    Jan 27 at 8:34

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