Multiple holes in circular direction I'm trying to get the outer holes going in a circular direction the circular mesh in the middle is clean, and so are the holes when left intact without applying the loop tools> circle.

I tried 2 methods of getting a better result, but both times I'm moving the mesh around and needs cleaning up, using knife tool to make more faces, which result in triangle faces.

What would be the best way to approach this type of modelling getting good topology and clean circular ellipses?

Thank you.

 

Reference image:


An example done in Adobe Illustrator. Its basically just smaller globes going around the larger globe which is in the middle.
Here is a solution for this kind of object. After step 3 I've assigned a Mirror modifier to the object so that you only need to work on 1/4 of the object. Remember that the center of the mirror is at the origin of the object, and activate the Clipping option. You can keep the Mirror as long as necessary, you can even apply, work on your object, then feel the need to bring back a new Mirror. After the extrusion on the Z axis, make sure you've not created some inner face, otherwise it will mess up the mesh. Give your object a Subdivision Surface modifier, add some edge loops to sharp the edges.