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Disclaimer: I’m very new to Blender.

I’ve loaded in this image as a reference to essentially trace by deforming a plane:

enter image description here

My best result so far has been by subdividing the plane with loop cuts, deleting unwanted vertices and edges, and dragging the remaining vertices to line up with the reference's edges. But I'm not sure how to get the vertices to align properly with a curve modifier. I've tried grouping vertices and applying a curve modifier to them, but I keep getting the corners of the mesh flipping over themselves.

I've also tried wrapping the plane in a lattice modifier, and tracing free hand with a Bézier curve.

End goal is to extrude, bevel corners, and export as stl.

Edit: adding image of best attempt, edges are more jagged than desired (I also messed up the rotation of the reference)

enter image description here

and highlighted faces from @moonboots response

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ I don't understand what you've done already and what you want to do next. As I understand it you have changed a plane to fit the shape. And you want to extrude and bevel it. So I don't know why you don't just extrude and bevel it but struggle with a curve or lattice modifier? $\endgroup$ Feb 16 at 5:32
  • $\begingroup$ Could you please show your best attempt so far? I think you should extrude a vertex all along the outer shape, then fill with quads, extrude, etc $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Feb 16 at 8:09
  • $\begingroup$ @GordonBrinkmann I tried following the guidelines/automated suggestions and that ended up reshaping my question into something less direct. What I originally wanted to ask is how more proficient users would approach modeling this piece/what the simplest or most blender-y way to create it would be. $\endgroup$
    – lepton4
    Feb 16 at 17:07
  • $\begingroup$ @moonboots happy to share what I have once I get home to my machine! $\endgroup$
    – lepton4
    Feb 16 at 17:09

1 Answer 1

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You can extrude a vertex all along the shape:

enter image description here

Then fill with quads:

enter image description here

Extrude up:

enter image description here

Bevel the edges (you'll need to edit to avoid any intersecting), etc:

enter image description here

To make the slope smoother just slide (GG) the edges like that:

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks, this is great! Honestly not too far off from my current version (which I’ll post later), but looks much cleaner and simpler to produce. How would I go about smoothing the side faces/aligning the vertices so that the perimeters are more perfectly curved? $\endgroup$
    – lepton4
    Feb 16 at 17:19
  • $\begingroup$ Could you please highlight the parts you're talking about? If you want smoother slopes, just move the vertices inwards $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Feb 16 at 17:40
  • $\begingroup$ I just edited my question with my best attempt and highlighted the faces I referred to above. I'd like the side/outward facing edges to be as smooth/perfectly curved as possible along the yellow lines, like the reference. $\endgroup$
    – lepton4
    Feb 17 at 0:06
  • $\begingroup$ @lepton4 I've edited my answer, is it what you want to know? $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Feb 17 at 9:07

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