Hi Rudy, Shell can be found under Construct / Offset / Shell.

It is used to create an object with a "wall thickness".

There are 2 ways it can be used. One way is to construct a solid of the specified thickness out of a surface:

Here you see a surface to the left, and to the right the result of using shell on it to thicken it to a solid:



One thing to be aware of is that if you have any tight curves or bends in your surface, you can't generally use a thickness value that is greater than the radius of the bend, otherwise this will cause the calculated surface to sort of fold back on itself.

Then the other way to use shell is as a way to sort of "hollow out" a solid. On a solid you can select faces of the solid which will become openings, and then after you run shell on it, you will have an object with wall thickness. Here's an example - this is the result of taking a box, selecting the top face and then running shell:



You can see there how the selected face becomes an opening, and all the other parts of the box became slabs of the specified thickness.

It is also possible to shell a solid without selecting any faces, in which case it will hollow out a cavity within the solid. But generally when used with solids you first select a face for the opening.

Let me know if you have any additional questions about shelling.

- Michael

Hi,

it means that you can give objects thickness/walls. You can find it unter Contruction->Offset.

Look at the picture for shell examples.



1. Object without Shell.
2. This is what you get when you use Shell. The object now have walls.
3. This is what you get when you select one face before executing the Shell command. The Object is open where the face was before.
4. Here i selected 3 faces before i executed the shell command.

Strength was set to 1 for all Shell examples.

MfG
sk2k

Sorry for my English. :D

Hehe, Michael was faster then me. :)

MfG
sk2k

Thank you Michael,

Have a good night.

Thank you Sk2k,

Have a good night...thank you for the trick on the revolve,
still do not know the A axis...
Tomorrow if you will remember

Best,
Rudy

There is no A axis. :) My faulty english misguided you.

MfG
sk2k

Hi Rudy,


You might be thinking of the A axis on a CNC milling machine,
which CAD jewelers use for cutting rings and two sided parts.

The rotary "A" axis on my milling machine has a 4-jaw chuck that holds the material.
It's set up in the CAM software so that that when the front side is done,
the software automatically turns the rotary 180 degrees and then the the art work on the back is carved.

-Jesse

Dear Jesse,
Thank you for adding things that are actually for me learning tools.
Little by little I am getting there.
I am trying to figure out the mill operations as well, if it is worth to get one to start or just send the STL file to a RP company and have my resins done, what about mistakes....I do not want that the company will charge me for a resin that is not correct....all these kind of questions in my head....plus learning to design in MOI (because I really think I love it, more than Rhino....MOI is simpler and very intuitive...I am trying to figure out how it thinks....little by little....

Also because I do not have to forget to earn my daily dough

Thank you,
Rudy
Enjoying your tutorials as well!

Hi
Here a combination betwen
"Font-, Project-, Sweep-, Boole- and Shell-command"
for deformed fonts





Best Regd`s
Ede

Some cool shapes, Ede!

- Michael

Thank you Michael
Here another combi with shell-boole


Best Regd`s
Ede

Hi Rudy,

You're welcome. I got a lot of help when I started and there is always more to learn,
so by sharing what I know, it's like putting something back into the bank
then....when I need to learn something new, I won't have to take out another loan. :-)

As you say, learning to design with MoI is definitely easier than Rhino, and yet, it
can still take time to learn to design with a computer if you've never done it before.

I can understand your concerns about paying for prototypes that aren't correct.
One of the good things about having a mill is it gives you the opportunity to make a lot of mistakes ;)
-but also to practice your skills....

Here is a quotation that a friend of mine often uses-

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
An expert is a man that has made all mistakes possible in a narrow
field of expertise".
Albert Einstein


With a mill, you can go from an idea in your mind to a model in your hand in less than an hour.
Then if you want to make changes, all it has cost you is a little time and and some wax, which is cheap.

Well anyway, one thing at a time...when your ready to have a model made, you can post it
on the forum or email it to one of the jewelers on here so you can get another perspective on whether it's a workable model.

-jdk-

Dear Jesse,
Your help and suggestions are always very valuable and very supportive.
I was not working with MOI for a couple of weeks....so now I am posting my things to understand how they work.

Thank you for the offer....yes, I will post something when it is going to be the time for the real thing, but I think there is going to be time before that point.

Thank you very much,
Rudy