Help with solid tools please

thegoodguy

Hi,

I am having an issue with the Outer Shell and/or the Union tools.

I have two solids that I have checked using the amazing Solid Inspector extension. When I try to unify them I get errors (when checked by Solid Inspector) I just cannot correct. I posted on this subject once before and was advised that if I was working on small models (jewellery) I should work on a large model and scale it down at the end. The dimension showing 7700000mm is to end up at 7.7mm.

The model is attached.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

2 Solids to be unified.

kaas

After a quick test I have the impression the boolean is just a bit too complex for SketchUp. It happens (sometimes) and you have to manually clean it up until its a boolean again. Maybe if you try to split the objects in half and mirror them after the boolean it might work.

To clean it up, I would add a sectionplane (and hide the plane) so you can more easily select interior faces that need to be removed. Just continue until the group 'says' solid again.

thegoodguy

Thanks for looking into it kaas.

I was hoping that wasn't going to be the reply . I was hoping I'd just have click one button to get it to magically work.

The problem isn't just internal faces. The union hasn't connect both objects at intersections in some areas.

Does anyone know of any software that can reliably boolean objects like these?

Thanks.

TIG

Working at very tiny sizes OR enormous sizes will both create issues.
SketchUp's built-in tolerances of 1/1000" [set because it expects to be modeling building related objects, not parts for a wristwatch!] will obvious cause problems with some intersections, follome etc, so temporarily scaling up x10 or x100 or x1000 will usually workaround that.
Your 7.7mm is too small, as tiny facets are almost inevitable.
Scaling x1000 to 7700mm [7.7m] makes it more 'building-sized' and then should work.
Scaling it more is counter-productive.
SketchUp/OpenGL has upper limits too - so something involving a group of buildings like the size of a block is OK [~100m], but your 7.7km is far too big ! That's a whole city !

But as stated it's possible to make some solids that won't 'intersect' well [and that is necessary to subtaract OR add solids]...

BUT if I scale your form to the more sensible 7.7m it then 'Unions' just fine !

thegoodguy

Fantastic!

Thanks you so much TIG. Most helpful and informative. New rules to work by