Volume Models get destroyed by some volume functions

kaas

...I am close to insanity... ...

Just wanted to add...

A trick if the booleans start to fail is to use 'intersect with selected' instead of boolean-subtract. Copy the resulting intersection lines into the base-solid and manually start deleting / adding faces.
If the original shape is already quite complex, copy the cutter and only the faces that would be affected by the boolean subtraction above the model and do the intersection there. It's sometimes much faster.

Alex84

Hello guys,
thanks a lot! for the answers
really appreciate it.

I have been looking for my thread under the "sketchup-bugs" section
and since I could not find it there I figured, it must have not yet been reviewed.

Now, after little over a week I decided to look into my profile where it says "your posts" and was pleasantly surprised to find so many answers.

I tried to scale by factor of 2 - did not work.
I tried to scale by factor of 10 - did not work, also factor of 100 did also not work.

So I am not sure what else to do.

I am uploading the file as an attachment to this post, so maybe any of you could give it a try and see if it works for you.

clamp

All I want to do is subtract the rectangle from the clamp in such a way, that the left side of the clamp is open and can contract, when a screw is inserted.

best regards,
Alex

mitcorb

Hi, Alex:
I downloaded your skp to try it out.
First off: The skp opened with the model upside down. The template you are using has no feature to indicate directionality except the "solidity" of the axes colors. I don't know if Sketchup cares which way is up, but I like to work with ordinary frames of reference.
I went to check which template you were using--metric, product design and woodworking, I think. I tried to retain it, and return to the model, but the program froze up, and I had to shut down and reboot, so I didn't continue.
Dave Richards' method of up-scaled component instance editing would be the way to go. Probably scale by 100. 25mm would be 2500mm--but it's still 25 somethings.

I may come back to this later, but I am out of time right now.

Dave R

One thing about using my method of scaling up a copy of a component is that Solid Tools converts components it modifies to groups so the original doesn't get modified. This is something I've been asking them to change but apparently I'm the only one who wants components to remain as components with Solid Tools. For that reason, I only use the Solid Tools when they would result in less work than using Intersect. I take in to consideration the whole process not just the intersecting but potential scaling, re-converting to a component, changing axes and correcting the other instances of the original component.

If all you're trying to do is cut a slot in your clamp, I would just make the clamp a component (I wouldn't have made it a group in the first place), copy it and your "cutter", scale up the copies by a factor of 100 or 1000 and use Intersect Faces. Then, when finished, close the clamp component to get out of edit mode and delete the giant copy.

kaas

Try the attached file - used R2014, saved in R2008.

Steps used:

deleted all the guides (not sure if it was necessary),
did the boolean,
your 'pestering triangle' appears.
I didn't like all the lines coming to 1 point on top so deleted some and I added a new line (see image)
by doing so, cap was filled automatically but still no solid
solid inspector reveals problem with same face - deleted that one and turns out to be another one there -> now Solid

edit: tried again with same solid result in R2014:

did the boolean
filled the gap, no solid
solid inspector reveals problem with 2 triangles
deleted those 2 triangles, no gap appears - were double - no solid
solid inspector reveals 1 tiny triangle still a problem
deleted triangle, reveals another, continue deleting (3 times) until gap appears, undo 1 step
-> solid

Rohrklemme2_fix8.skp

Dave R

I had a look at your model and found some precision related errors. I redrew it from scratch. I didn't have any problems with the weird diagonals and disappearing faces. I'm thinking that most of the issues you are having are self-induced. By working at a larger scale (easy when you're working in metric units, too) and with higher precision, you're more likely to get the model you want.

Although you didn't show it, I took the liberty of adding a slot in the opposite end of the clamps so that end would work the same way.

FWIW, since both ends of the clamp are identical with one end just rotated 90 degrees, I only drew half of it. Then I copied the half, rotated it as needed and moved it up to the first half. Deleting the seam line made it a single piece.

Rohrklemme2.skp

pbacot

Rounding edges last might make things easier. With roundcorners plugin, it just means a couple more clicks, (due to the split edges in your model)

Dave R

Peter, that's a good suggestion. Even doing the round overs with native tools would be trivial.

mitcorb

Hi, Dave:
I think you meant to address Peter rather than me above.

Dave R

@mitcorb said:

Hi, Dave:
I think you meant to address Peter rather than me above.

Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?

Thanks. I fixed it.

Alex84

thank you a lot @ all who have tried ans especially
Dave R and kaas!

Upon another close inspection I found out that one edge consisted of only 10 faces while all 3 other "rounded-edges" had 12 rounded faces...strange.

Plus I could clearly see those "precision related errors" Dave was speaking about,
I must clearly have messed something up big time unintentionally by being a very few mm off without noticing it!

The red-axis for example does not run parallel to the objects outer edge.
maybe it is so slightly off, that it is "ok" for the object as it is, but once solid-actions are performed it just looses it.

Anyway. Am happy to have a working clamp now and will pay even more attention to those little details in the future.

thanks again to everybody who wrote in this thread.

best regards,
Alex