[Plugin] SolidSolver

pbacot

It was already great! Now new and improved! Thanks TIG!

TIG

Here's v3.2
http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=TIG_solidsolver
It is now faster, more robust, and resolves intersecting forms, partitions, and reversed faces better...

TIG

Here's v3.3
http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=TIG_solidsolver
There's a fix for an intersection glitch when solving multiple groups in succession, and the resulting edges were sometimes getting transformed inappropriately...

cotty

Thank you for the nice updates!

TIG

Here's v3.5 http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=TIG_solidsolver
[we skipped v3.4 !]
It fixes some face and tiny folded face failures - which might rarely need two tries to end up with a successful 'solid' !

cotty

I've tried with an group with some nested components, confirmed the question if I want to explode them, but they are still there afterwards...
(model here: http://blog.cotty.de/2015/04/pfosten/)

TIG

@cotty said:

I've tried with an group with some nested components, confirmed the question if I want to explode them, but they are still there afterwards...
(model here: http://blog.cotty.de/2015/04/pfosten/)
Thanks for the report.
I suspect what happens is that it's not a solid because it contains nested containers.
So you elect to explode them.
SolidSolver then does a test to see if any part of the geometry intersects - it may report 'solid' be be unprintable in 3d !
Having done the check it reports your model is already solid, but at that point it undoes its intersection check, which undoes the exploding too...
I can fix it, just needs a convoluted check/trap...
Watch for an update asap...

TIG

Following Cotty's report...
Here's v4.0 http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=TIG_solidsolver Any nested contents will now stay exploded after the ensuing intersecting-faces check, leaving a true-solid.
The processing speed has also been greatly improved by recoding the intersecting-faces checker.

cotty

Thank you for the fast update, improvement confirmed!

TIG

Here's v4.1 http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=TIG_solidsolver A rare fail with tiny hole healing has been resolved.

jtri

When I ran Solid solver on a component in this model I would get a bug splat. I fixed all my components so that they are solids and ran Solid Solver and still go a bug splat. Any ideas? I am using Ver 8 of SketchUp.
Thanks

15.4.5 bigger bottom stay.skp

driven

some of your geometry is on the Bottom Stay layer, move it to Layer 0 and it's solid...
john

jtri

Thanks! I did not see that.......

Definitelymaybe

thanks. sounds useful. but can u kindly tell me how can i install it? im new here

Thanks a lot

TIG

@definitelymaybe said:

thanks. sounds useful. but can u kindly tell me how can i install it? im new here ...
There are several ways...
In order of [initial] simplicity...

Download the plugin's RBZ from the PluginStore.
Assuming you have SketchUp >=v8M2
In SketchUp open its Preferences > Extensions - use the 'Install...' button.
Choose the RBZ and install it.
It loads and is available in the menu etc as explained in its Usage notes...

Alternatively download the SketchUcation PluginStore Toolset RBZ from its page or its PluginStore item. Install it as above...

Now you can Auto-Install any of the hundreds of PluginStore plugins using its dialog...
No need to download an RBZ at all.
So once you have installed this toolset you can Auto-Install from the PluginStore with no manual RBZ download at all.

If you do have an RBZ [perhaps downloaded from another source], then you can use the toolset's SketchUcation submenu item 'Install Archive...' - this works on RBZ OR ZIP files - an alternative to the native Installer which only installs from RBZ...

Almost all compatible plugins now come in RBZ format...
But if you have got a simple RB script obtained from somewhere else, then you can ZIP it, then use the Install... steps as outlined above.
If you want you can rename its file-type-extension from ".zip" to ".rb" - an RBZ file is actually a ZIP file with a changed file-type suffix...

TIG

Here's v5.0.
http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=TIG_solidsolver
It is now future-proofed...

TIG

Here's v6.0.
http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=TIG_solidsolver
It has a few security improvements...

moot

What does 'Form has been intersected' mean?
I click on 'Ok', SolidSolver appears to be still working on the object, SketchUp 'Not Responding', it's been over an hour now. At the time I grouped the object there were over 250,000 entities... probably why. Any thing I can do to the file? SketchUp is using 50+% of CPU...
Wow, it finally finished. Got message 'There are 137 Coplanar Edges. Remove them?'
I answered 'Yes' and SolidSolver said 'Now a solid'. Problem was now almost all of the object was gone... luckily the Undo worked and brought everything back. Now it's just a group in the model again.
The .skp is 15.5MB so I don't think I should try to attach it

Guess I still would like to know the implications...

pilou

@unknownuser said:

The .skp is 15.5MB so I don't think I should try to attach it

Sure you do!
First Zip it! (Right Click on the name file / Send to Compressed File ) you obtain a "zip file"
If it's less 2 Megas you can post it here else

you can use something like WeTransfert.com (free) for share this file "ziped"
(trick : use also your email as "mail's Friend" so you will have the adress file

Put here the adress' file that you will receive!

& Voilà!

Anybody can read your SKP (for a week) even it's 1.99 GIGAS!

@unknownuser said:

over an hour now

That is that we call to be very patient!

@unknownuser said:

Problem was now almost all of the object was gone.

Curious! We are impatient to see that!
You must send at least an image!
(seems you don't follow the Golden rule: (Image(s) and / or File(s)) !

@unknownuser said:

'Form has been intersected' mean?

Can be many thing but generally overlaping, intricated facets...
...but without image and or file we can't answer intelligent things!

TIG

If you try and model geometry as a solid it gives extensions like SolidSolver or SolidInspector² a chance.
That many entities seems a lot - what is it ?
When it says that it has intersected the form it means that some of your form's geometry penetrates another part of it.
Although it might even actually report as a solid in Entity Info it still cannot be 3d-printed, because of that issue.
It's an object that cannot exist in the real world.
SolidSolver intersects such a form with itself to try to avoid this issue - but of course then there are edges with more than two faces, internal partitions etc - all of which prevent it being a solid... so it must remove or edit those...
In doing so it might then remove expected faces etc and change the form...

Try this approach...
Whether it's reported as a solid in Entity Info or not...
Edit the group.
Select all of the geometry [Ctrl+A] and context-menu > Intersect with Selection...
If it is not saying it's a solid in Entity Info, then it needs fixing...

Get/Install thomthom's SolidInspector [v1 NOT v2].
Run it on the selected group and it will show several problem areas...
It shows, it does not fix.
SolidInspector² reports issues and then offers to fix those it can.
It might not spot all issues.
Often it cannot fix all issues.

SolidSolver tries to fix all issues right off, but again it's not perfect and it might remove parts you'd like to keep !

Give these tools a break...
Edit the group and try and fix problems manually.

Here are some basic rules for achieving a manifold solid...

A solid group [or component-instance] must contain only geometry - faces and edges.
So this means no nested groups and so on.
You can include guides, but they are again best avoided.

Every edge must support exactly two faces - so that means...
no faceless edges [no matter how tiny],
no holes [no matter how tiny] where some edges have only one face,
no shelves or flaps where some edges have only one face,
no internal partition faces where some edges have three or more faces,
no otherwise seemingly solid forms like two cubes that share an edge, because that edge then has four faces.
no overlaid coincident faces sharing common edges - these can result in some 3d operations making some edges have that extra coincident face - one of those faces needs removing.

All faces should be consistently oriented to face front=outwards, i.e. no back faces should be visible [appearance depends on the current Style, but usually it's front=off-white and back=blue-gray].
If it's a solid then the context-menu > Orient should fix such issues if one 'good' face is selected.

As explained above a form can report as a solid even it it can't really exist - i.e. if it loops back on itself and penetrates a surface without having been intersected and the resultant problems fixed - like internal partition faces...

Also I'd recommend that everything is made on Layer0, and while trying to model a solid use the default material only [or at least view in Monochrome mode], and do not use any hidden or smoothed edges [which have no bearing on future 3d-printing anyway] - or at least use View > Hidden Geometry > On...

PS:
Tip: to see inside a form which has issues, use Xray mode or a temporary section-cut.
That way you can select unwanted edges or faces and use <delete> to remove them...