#Braids #3StrandBraids

From the #profileCurve in https://pixelfed.social/p/Splines/798252244743520392, extrude a 192 units long solid starting at the origin.

Copy the original strand twice and place the copies 16 and 32 units to the right of the original. The three strands are shown here in orange, white, and green. Because of these shifts, the starting and ending portions of the braid are not usable. So use #cuttingSurfaces 40 units from the origin and 184 units from the origin. This will give you a clean 3-strand braid 144 units long.

For the #capital, we need two sections, one that is 120 units long and another that is 24 units long. So be prepared to split the braid-channel assembly one more time, but not yet.

Before making further cuts, make a copy of the entire 144 units-long braid assembly and save it separately. Then perform a #nonuniformScale with origin as the base point, and scale only in Z to shrink the height of channel from 12 to 6. The entire assembly will now have a height of 8.1 units down from 16.2. The nonuniformly-scaled version is not shown here.

The image on the top-right shows a rectangular profile curve sweeping the same rail curve as before, giving it sharp corners.

The image on bottom-left shows a profile curve derived from sections of the rail curve itself that were cut, rotated, and reflected to form a closed non-planar outline. When we sweep this closed curve on the original rail, we get smooth top and bottom surfaces and sharp edges on the sides.. After you sweep this shape, you will find that the ends are still open.

There is no way to close the holes with what we have discussed so far because the edges are not planar. To fix this, you will have to create #patchSurfaces using the edge curves of the profile on both ends and join all three surfaces. Check for #nakedEdges and #nonManifoldEdges for #airtight fit.

The last image shows a 5-point star with sharp angular lines swept on the same rail curve.