Outer shelling a dynamic component (with subcomponents)

[wawmsey7]

Hi,

I have a component that I have made dynamically and I want to 'outer shell it'. however it has various subcomponents within the components etc etc... so when I click to outer shell on the component, it doesn't like it and tells me it isn't a solid . So at the moment I am exploding the correct parts carefully so that I have a component made up of components that are all on the same level. Then it will shell!

If I use an explode all plugin then this just leaves me with complex intertwined geometry that won't shell nicely (so i get nice clean faces).

So is there an easy way to explode a component so that it explodes all the parts inside it but stops on the last 'layer' so all the geometry is nicely grouped on one layer ready to be shelled.. or does a plugin already exist that does this???

There other way would be to use the explode all component in component plugin and then somehow neatly shell or skin the outside of this? again not really sure if this is doable or not??

If anyones got any ideas or has figured this out before then please let me know...

Thanks in advance
Matt

[pcmoor]

the type of component that would explode to form a solid would be one that cuts an opening. So pin pointing those particular components and their influence to explode would be necessary before outer shelling.
Using the outliner and selecting, right click exploding would be the quickest. Grouping and naming such geometry would help (you would have to pass the required attributes through of course). like plates with a set of holes would be grouped to Ax_"name" like Ax_plate1, Ax_plate2....so easy to reference

the "A" would be a place holder, "x" for explode
I believe you would need some kind of naming convention, for a ruby script to seek out and destroy

once you have establish a simple method, then you can build a ruby script, or course with help from the gurus.

EDIT: just realised that nesting down more than one level is causing your problem as you wrote, However the same principle applies.... use outliner, open(+) to require nested group, can use control to select more than one,right click to context menu....explode