Sorry, back again with another frustrating issue. I simply want to offset these series of curve lines which I've joined. But the result is a bunch of broken lines. Also when I attempt to extrude these closed series of lines as well with caps turned on it doesn't cap.

file

Hi Art, it's because your curve is not planar, if you look at it in the 3D view:



If you flatten it to be planar then you should get the behavior you were expecting. A quick way to do that is to go to the Top view and use an edit frame sizing grip to squish it down with "flat" snap (http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=3378.4)

- Michael

dang, ok, good to know. that was an intentional angle, not a mistake. I assumed moi would work with such a profile. It seems to extrude fine, but errors trying to cap it for the reason you mentioned. Thanks for the tip on the flat snap. The end goal is something like the blue components of this shoe. I keep trying to build one line curve at a time because I am measuring things with calipers and trying to be accurate. What seems to be the way I need to approach this is to use the lines simply as guides, then use solids and boolean the hell out of them because everytime I try to 'build" surface or solids from joined curves I keep running into workflow problems.

Hi Art,

re:
> I assumed moi would work with such a profile.

You can work with a profile like that but with the kind of side effects that you are seeing like you won't get planar end caps on things like extrusions.

Usually it is a good idea to work with planar curves for extrusions and generate angled ends by doing a boolean with a side profile curve.

- Michael

That actually makes more sense. Thanks Michael. P.s. I'm actually not that bad with moi. I've already made some not so basic tools for my job sight. It's just at the end of the day I get a solid I can print, but don't completely understand how I got there. Your responses really help simplify the process. 20+ years using traditional poly modeling apps moving into CAD requires a different mindset. Love Moi so far though, esp the interface. Cheers

Hi Art, there are some tips here for people coming from a poly modeling background:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4865.2

Yes indeed it's a much different approach.

- Michael

Great! Thank you.

Back again in frustration. I modeled this object to the left in Moi for my jobsite a few days ago no problem (just to show I am not completely dull in understanding Moi ) The model to the right is a personal project I cannot get a single chamfer to work anywhere. Actually, I don't want to chamfer this particular object. Its an inner overmold for a shoe. Its geometry in the end design you will never even see, but the fact I cannot even chamfer something so simple makes my confidence going forward shaky for the main design. The reason I keep trying to get this general wedge shape is that it reflects the measurements I took with calipers.

My downfall currently seems to be that starting from lines curves, extruding, booleaing I run into these problems in short manner of time. Likewise lofting or sweaping profile edges or any manner of tends to lead me down the road into trouble.

I did read through the links you posted about using MOI, it seems that I can make a soild cube and go to boolean town on it without breaking the chamfer ability.

Perhaps I should use my broken object simply for dimensional reference only? Will try to get a shape similar to the one on the right by starting with a cube and cutting away at that and let you know how that goes. Sorry if my questions seem convoluted or not clear.

Hi Art, can you please post the .3dm model file with the object you 're having problems with?

One thing that can make things difficult for chamfer or fillet is having surfaces that are not smooth to each other but are not too far off from being smooth.

The reason being that part of the fillet/chamfer process involves intersecting offset surfaces and 2 surfaces that meet at a shallow angle have more of a "zone of overlapping" rather than a crisply defined intersection.

So I'd probably try to make some of the pieces to be longer single smooth surfaces rather than fragmented into many faces with shallow angles to each other.

There is a kind of similar recent discussion thread here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=10210.1

Anyway, if you can post your .3dm model file I can take a look and try to give some feedback. It is very helpful to post the .3dm model file along with your question instead of only screenshots.

- Michael

Hi Art,

re:
> but the fact I cannot even chamfer something so simple makes my confidence going
> forward shaky for the main design.

Well if it makes you feel any better, shapes that have surfaces meeting at shallow angles and containing vertices with 5 edges coming out from a single shared vertex are pretty difficult cases for fillet/chamfer, not really a simple case for them at all.

What would make it simpler would be to have lower number of surfaces - areas where you currently have blocky pieces meeting at a shallow angle should be larger smooth surfaces and that will help reduce higher vertex valence counts as well.

- Michael

Thanks for the help Michael. Here is the file.

Hi Art, I've attached a version that's been simplified, a couple of areas that had fragmented faces have been combined into a single larger face and I sliced off a sliver with an angled cutting plane to make just one single plane in place of 2 fragments that had a shallow meet-up angle.

This version should work better with Chamfer.

- Michael

Michael this is super helpful for understanding how this works. And now I'm trying to recreate how you got that cutting plane to line up the way you have it in the file in the first place. I tried three point plane on surface but it doesn't extend past the points I select. Was this a re-oriented plane or C-plane view method?

Hi Art, that was a 3 point plane that was then scaled, here's a demo:



- Michael

Ah, nice. Thankyou!

Hi Michael, after some practice, some test prints and your tips I went and remade the initial cutting solid over again in a few min with a simpler method of a few planes and blended edges. I am happy with the smooth interior result and this boolean cut is obviously the last step before exporting. fillets/chamfers done prior to cutting out the large cavity space.