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Can Parametric Surfaces Be Turned Into Volumes?

Posted Apr 30, 2026, 10:18 p.m. EDT Geometry Version 5.2a 0 Replies

Sanoussi Biao

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Hello

This question is pretty simple in nature. I am attempting to model a tube with a rectangular transition in the middle. There is a screenshot of the geometry in question below for context. I am working on COMSOL version 5.2a, so to create this geometry, I opted to do so using a parametric surface. I did so using a super ellipse parametric equation, and as it was a surface I wanted to turn it into a volume by unioning endcaps and using the convert to solid function on the union.

This workflow has failed repeatedly. As such I attempted to see if I could get convert to solid to work for more simple cases, and defined a simpler hollow cylinder as a parametric surface and attempted to utilize union and convert to solid to turn it into a volume. This also failed, and subsequent attempts with trying to turn other simple surfaces into volumes like cubes have also not worked.

I have only seen videos of convert to solid being utilized in 2d, so I wanted to ask if utilizing convert to solid on 3d surfaces is fruitless as I have had no successful attempts and cannot find any examples online.

If so, does anyone have any suggestions for creating smooth transitions in 5.2a? I do not have access to a loft function in this version it seems, and I also can only import STL's, rather than another form of CAD file. I have had very poor experiences with the quality of STL imports, so the idea of creating the geometry in Solidworks and importing it also is failing me.

Thank You

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Screenshot 2026-04-30 220449.png

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