Hey everyone,

I am new here, so please forgive/advise me if I am not following typical procedures or if I need to include more information/files/pictures/etc. I have scanned a drone propeller with a 3D scanner and am trying to create the leading and trailing edges. The Y-axis is from the center of the hub to the far edge of the prop blade. The Z-axis is the axis of the central hub. I am modeling only one of the 2 blades and will pattern it about the central hub.

In the scanner software:

I created surfaces on both the bottom and top of the blade (Surface 3 and Surface 4 in the .prt file). Then, in the scanner software, I took a silhouette cross-section of the blade on the XY plane (Cross-section 2_1). Next, I took 10 cross-sections on the XZ plane spaced 1mm apart (Cross-section 4_1 thru Cross-section 4_10). I also took XZ cross-sections spaced 7.4mm apart (Cross-section 2_2 thru Cross-section 2_17). Lastly, I took YZ cross-sections 3.5mm apart (Cross-section 3_1 thru Cross section 3_3). I then exported all of this to SolidWorks.

In SolidWorks:

First, I extended my top and bottom surfaces so that they would for sure extend past my silhouette cross-section (Cross-section 2_1). Then, I did a surface trim of the top and bottom surfaces with my silhouette cross section (Cross-section 2_1).

What I planned to do to get the leading and trailing edges:

On each cross-section on the XZ plane (Cross-section 4_1 thru Cross-section 4_10 and Cross-section 2_2 thru Cross-section 2_17), using a section view on each cross-sections respective plane, I used intersection curves to find where the top and bottom surfaces intersected the plane I was sketching on. Then I sketched the curve of the leading and trailing edges with a style spline and matched the curvature as best I could to the cross-section curve; both ends of each spline made coincided with the intersection of the surface and cross-section curve. Once my sketches were generated, I created a boundary surface from spline to spline. I am aware I do not have direction lines as I did not get to this point yet; just wanted to see if the spline selection would work for boundary surfaces.

NOTE: There were some cross-section curves that did not intersect with one of the surfaces (Cross-section 2_5, Cross-section 2_7, Cross-section 4_8, Cross-section 4_9, and Cross-section 4_10). When creating my boundary surfaces, I could not select these as directions. I also could not select them as profiles in a surface loft.

Is this how this should be done? If anyone has any advice on why I cannot select the sketches listed in the "NOTE" or if I should be doing this process a completely different way, please teach me!

Thank you for your help. I am using SolidWorks 2019.