Good day.
I have made 2 items that printed great but I had to change measurement and had to redraw from scratch.
so these are complete and split in the middle to be able to fit into the printer.
Boolean merge did not work for me so I did this with trim...but now I cannot close it to make it solid to continue. What am I doing wrong here Pls help.

Files attached.

Thank you!

Hi Matadem, Trim is a lower level operation that only works at the surface level. It doesn't automatically glue pieces together like the booleans do, you need to follow it up with using Edit > Join to glue things together.

You also have extra pieces that you need to delete and should not be joined in.

For example in this area here:



Select this piece and hide it:



Then select this left over fragment and delete it:



Now show the box piece and select it and the main piece and use Edit > Join to glue them together.

Booleans can save a lot of time since they automatically throw out pieces and join stuff together. It would probably be good to see the step where you were trying to boolean it so I could give some tips on why that wasn't working well. Stuff like having surfaces just barely skimming over coincident surface areas can be difficult to boolean for example. You instead want to have things push through each other with a little margin rather than barely skimming unless they are very accurate like with planes directly on each other and not stuff like sweeps skimming over each other.

- Michael

I have attached the file I was working on.
I Drew this by sweeping a shape onto a rail and the line in the middle I have selected everything > Boolean > Merge. I do select all and trim when the Boolean merge does not work.

I m sure I am doing something wrong but I am not sure what

I created this same item different ways
from the line shape > offset to get the desired measurement and >extrude and the >flow to get the desired shape ( I had a hard time to flow the item to an exact length so I did the multiple times to be close enough ...is there a way to get the exact measurement for instance the shape to be flowed at is 516mm when I perform the flow it would be off my a few mm.

the other way was to create the shape and sweep around a rail which seemed a cleaner result.

If there is a better way (or steps ) to make this let me know


When I separated the items would be hollow and I cannot send it to print.

I just tried a new file with something simpler oval as a rail and sweep a shape around it then draw a line in the middle Boolean> Merge and it works fine but the file I am working on I cannot make it work :/

Thank you!

Hi Matadem, do you have an earlier version of this before applying boolean merge? This one you posted has already been cut up into pieces, like the box here:



Is already split up in your file into these pieces:



It would be easier to help you if you could post the file before slicing it all up.

Why is it that you were using boolean merge instead of difference or union? Are the boxes supposed to make holes in the base shape or protrusions?

Looking at these results the base problem is likely that the sweep part was probably not a closed solid before doing the boolean on it:





- Michael

"Are the boxes supposed to make holes in the base shape or protrusions?"
No the boxes should just the in place and printed as is ...maybe when I did the merge it did mess it up even more :/

Attached pic is a Boolean merge with line to split is the way I do it to split my model ...with simpler items no issues..with other things abit more complex I always have an issue :/


This should be one before split in the middle.
All the ones I have , have the boxes already.
Thanks you!

Thanks Matadem, this one will be easier to work with. Are the boxes supposed to cut depressions into the sweep object or are they supposed to be protrusions sticking out from it?

- Michael

One thing I see is there is an extra surface object hanging out right in the middle of the other pieces:





If that is getting selected as one of the objects being booleaned that might not be good.

- Michael

Hi Matadem, so on the "no split.3dm" file your geometry looks all good and ready to go, you were almost done. you probably just need to avoid getting that additional surface involved in the booleans.

Try these steps:

1. Hide all curves so they aren't getting in your way. Click here:


2. Hide that open surface by clicking just below on Types > Surfaces:


3. Select all the objects, it should say 24 solids are selected:


4. Run Construct > Boolean > Union, those should all combine into one single solid:


You can now draw a line and use it as the cutting object in boolean difference to slice it in half if you want.

Let me know if you still have trouble.

- Michael

Good day.

Thank you for the help however I still need some help as I could not figure out the best way to do this.
I printed the items and they fit extremely well however at a corner it has a gap about 2mm..
I have attached a picture where the green lines are an extruded edge about 2mm thick should start from zero and or from the surface.
Where the blue line and arrow is it should go up about 2mm then end up to the other green line back to zero and or same as the surface.

I did not want to flow it again as I am afraid to mess everything up since it fits nicely..Please let me know what would be the best way to accomplish this.

Thank you!

Hi Matadem, please post the .3dm model file with the green and blue lines in it. It's difficult to figure out what is going on with something like that from just a screenshot, I need to be able to zoom in and look at it from different angles to understand.

- Michael

Good day
see attached on the pic the blue line that should go about 2 mm up and should be about 2mm thick extruded.

Thank you!

Hi Matadem, do you mean something like this, done here with sweep?







- Michael

Good day.
Yes that is what I am looking for.

Hi Matadem, here is a version with that sweep put in, I built a new one that extended a bit over to make sure it could intersect well and then trimmed away parts so the sweep could fit in:



- Michael

Hellow all/ @Michael,

I was working on a mesh and I couldn't make a solid out of it and I don't know why, could you please take a look at it? I even tried to reconstruct it using "rebuild" script but again no Solid!

Hi Psygorn, if you highlight naked edges (instructions here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=10582.13 ) this is the problem area:



Zooming in to this area:





That's a gap between edges there that is just a little bit too far apart to be joined together.

The top looks like it's ok it's the bottom where the pieces are not close enough together to be joined.

- Michael

Hi Psygorn, I've attached a version of your object here that is a solid now. I deleted the faces around that problem area, did an "untrim" to remove the current trim boundaries that were kind of messy with a couple of little edge fragments in them, then lofted between the 2 semi-circles, joined those pieces together and then used Construct > Planar to cap off the flat pieces.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Ok, Thank you so much.

Thank you Michael,

I was able to repeat the process.

However, I want to ask you something do u know if I a mesh which is joined surfaces and pretty small gap is printable or not?

Hi Psygorn,

re:
> However, I want to ask you something do u know if I a mesh which is joined surfaces and
> pretty small gap is printable or not?

It depends on the particular situation but probably not.

It's more of a problem than just a gap - the triangulation generated for the STL file will not have watertight synchronized vertex structures across the unjoined edges.

Maybe some slicers could tolerate that but I kind of doubt it.

- Michael