Paint without clicking each face

[blaar75]

Hi

Without going into too much detail. I have a model with lots of intersecting faces and internal faces. I want to 3D print this model but as is it is not possible.

So I was thinking. If I :

1. Select all faces.
2. Intersect faces with current selection
3. Paint the out side of the model a different color
4. Select faces by material
5. Copy selection to new

Would result in all the internal faces and garbage excluded. My problem is coloring all the faces takes way to long as there are too many. Is there a way to color the faces but just holding down the mouse button instead of clicking on each face.

I have tried ctrl and shift but the result is the connecting faces are also colored on the inside.

If I manually click on each face the internal faces are not selected but as mentioned. Very, very time consuming.

Thanks for any tips / advise.

[TIG]

Have you tried thomthom's SolidInspector2 or my SolidSolver [or one of the others] ?
These extensions try to make your form into a manifold-solid, which is then 3d-printable...

They can't work miracles, but they might help...

Even some screenshots of you form might help us advise further...

If the fixing of such messed forms were possible using something like you outlined, then I'm sure that a developer would have already done it - it would be the 'holy-grail' !
Note that in code you could skip the coloring part, as you'll already have a reference to all faces, and from that you could perhaps get an array of 'outside' faces to process as you hope into a separate 'shell'...
However, there's the rub !
Determining which of those faces are actually 'outside' is the problem.
It's straightforward if the faces form a continuous shell surface, that's easily oriented, and so on, but since - by your definition - it's made of multiple intersections etc, then how could this be achieved.
Where does the code start to ensure it's not disregarding facets that are needed, and not including facets that should be ignored...

If you have some clever coding methods, we'd all be interested...

[pbacot]

Does the "shell" command work for this?

[blaar75]

Thanks for the reply. I have no coding experience. Don;t even know how to code. So my method of thinking is purely based on "hoping".

Still busy coloring the outer faces. My Pc is very slow so its not a quick process.

I made section cut so the internal can be seen. Left is with the internal geometry and right is the one I copied using the select material option.

I notice the intersection is not perfect but it does give a great starting point having not too many of the internal garbage to deal with.

I will try the tools you mentioned also.

Edit : As part of process I find you should also :

1. Scale up the model. I scaled it 1000x. That way you pick up gaps easier and intersecting works better.
2. After scaling and intersecting faces, select the model again and copy and paste as new part and then group it. For some reason if you keep original after intersecting SU deletes faces for some reason when you save the model. Not sure why that happens.

[Dave R]

To make it printable you to fix the reversed faces. You can see some of them in magenta here.

CleanUp will take care of some of the unneeded stuff.

And Solid Inspector2 will fix a couple of things and show you what else you have to deal with.

Don't bother painting faces. That's not going to help you fix the model. You need to be able to see reversed faces and such. Painting them will mask them but that won't help.

Hide some of the exterior faces and you'll be able to see the garbage that needs to be removed on the inside.

What version of SketchUp arer you using? Please complete your profile with that information and operating system. That information helps us help you.

[pbacot]

@blaar75 said:

@pbacot said:

Does the "shell" command work for this?

I am not familiar with the tool. Can you perhaps look at the one part and guide me if possible ?

Sorry, I looked at it and realize I misunderstood the issue. I tried Solidsolver on it but it failed. Probably too much to fix. Looks pretty cool but complicated model with so much to clean up.

[blaar75]

@pbacot said:

@blaar75 said:

@pbacot said:

Does the "shell" command work for this?

I am not familiar with the tool. Can you perhaps look at the one part and guide me if possible ?

Sorry, I looked at it and realize I misunderstood the issue. I tried Solidsolver on it but it failed. Probably too much to fix. Looks pretty cool but complicated model with so much to clean up.

No problem. The model is from Battletech. (Hatchetman).

I found a paid tool called Artisan. It has a big paint brush but sadly it also paints faces next to the one being painted.

Found another tool in the FredoTools toolset called ThruPaint. It paints one face at a time and you can just hold down the mouse. For now I am trying that, just wish there was a way to increase the "brush" size.

[blaar75]

Ok. it worked pretty good. Here is the same model after "cleanup". Most of the internal garbage is now gone. Just need a little more cleanup but its a good start I think.

I can see I missed some very small faces but I think if I import in Windows 3D builder it will plug all the holes.

I also tested with Windows 3D painter and paints so quick, wish something similar can be made for Sketchup. Will make the painting process very quick.

My problem with 3D painter is it only exports in formats SU does not support and the plugins in Warehouse to import those are not free. So not sure how well it would have worked to paint in 3D painter then import into SU.

If I knew how to UV map , I guess that is also an option.

---

Hatchetman_Final.zip

[blaar75]

@pbacot said:

Does the "shell" command work for this?

I am not familiar with the tool. Can you perhaps look at the one part and guide me if possible ?