Hi Gord,
re:
> Rebuilt it all now, but used fewer waterlines.
>
> Now I want it as a solid, but the shell offset won't have any of it.
It's the same thing I wrote above ( http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=9819.15):
quote:
Hi Gord, the shell command can only really handle thickening an open surface into a solid if it has all smooth pieces. When there are sharp edges like you have here the surface offsets do not touch each other and would need to be extended and intersected with each other and MoI's shell function is not good at doing that.
Additionally if you have any really tight bends or bumps in it that will be difficult for it to generate an offset surface from as well. An offset surface is generated by moving a distance away from the surface along its surface normal. If the surface normal is wiggling around chaotically it will become magnified in the offset and mess it up.
And also
quote:
3 sided networks can be problematic because the surface generated from it will have one of its sides collapsed down to a point and it is pretty easy for something with bends in it to then have really small tight bends in the collapsed down spot. Instead of a 3 sided network it is usually better to form areas like that by having a larger extended 4 sided surface that then becomes 3 sided by it being trimmed rather than trying to directly construct a surface to those curves. Then a fillet or blend can connect it to the other part.
The 3 sided network on the back has a chaotic wiggly mess at the collapsed tip area here:
The 3 sided network on the front has a chaotic wiggly mess at it's collapsed area too:
If you zoom in very closely to the tip area you can see that it has a lot of bumps and folds in it in a very small area:
Bumps and folds like that means the surface normal is changing wildly in a very small area, that will make the surface offset go crazy there as it tries to build something along the normal. The offset is kind of like taking a stick and sliding it along the surface, any wobbles or folds in the surface get magnified on the offset. So there isn't going to be any chance to get a good surface offset on stuff like that. In general I'd recommend avoiding making 3 sided network, you need to do things like make an extended 4 sided surface and then trim off some area like I wrote about previously here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=9819.15
Your middle 2 pieces are ok, you can separate those out into 2 individual surfaces and use offset on those to get the thickening process going like I described above here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=9819.16
- Michael
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