How to give thickness to a complex surface?

[dr_dunno]

I have a surface which I created using the Simple Loft tool (see the image below for my example surface). Since this is considered to be an infinitely thin surface, I wanted to turn it into a 3d object which has a thickness of, say, 0.1mm.

Is there any script to do this? Or any other fast method of getting it down, without having to manually copy the surface and join it?

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[xrok1]

jointpushpull will do this. .1mm may be questionable in SU though.

[thomthom]

0.1 might very well cause SU to have a fit. If you experience problems, try scaling up 10 or 100 times before you do the operation - then scale down again.

[remus]

Joint push pull: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=6708&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=joint

[dr_dunno]

Thanks to everyone who responded. jointpushpull is the perfect solution for this.

@thomthom said:

0.1 might very well cause SU to have a fit. If you experience problems, try scaling up 10 or 100 times before you do the operation - then scale down again.

I have always faced the problem with changes below the 1mm range of SU. So, I usually scale it up, perform the required ops, then scale it back down. Still, thanks for that tip.

[marcday]

Here's a neat trick - don't try and push/pull it!

I usually get the complex surface - rotate it so that it's horizontal (make it a component and edit a rotated copy if you want to keep it where it is) - select the edges (or select all / filter edges = quicker (selection filters.rb)) - then 'Extrude selected lines along Z' (projections.rb)- copy the complex surface to the top of the edges! Ta-dahhhh! Might sound a bit of a fiddle - but it's quicker and more reliable than push/pulling it.

Just a bit of lateral thinking!

[remus]

that wont necessarily give you a surface with a uniform thickness, though.

[marcday]

You're quite correct

Still - works in a lot of cases!