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creating stl from surfaces

9 REPLIES 9
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Message 1 of 10
KatyBradford
422 Views, 9 Replies

creating stl from surfaces

Hey everyone, I realize I cannot create an stl straight from surfaces, but I need to know the steps on how to make this set of surfaces into a .1" thick solid that can be exported to an stl without losing its dimensions. Does anyone know how to do this? I would really appreciate your help!

9 REPLIES 9
Message 2 of 10

Try making them into solids? vertical and horizontal can be done as extrusions, then a loft in between perhaps.
Message 3 of 10

Gah, Sorry first post wasn't very helpful was it? Try making regions for the vert and horizontal sufarces, then extrude, for the horizontal, make the top plane, then the ribs seperatly and join, possibly same for vert, then you can loft.
Message 4 of 10
JDMather
in reply to: KatyBradford

I would model right from the beginning as solids rather than surfaces.

 

If you start to Thicken the surfaces you see interferences between parts that cannot occur in real world and would take significant time to trim and clean up.

 

If you try to follow real-world modeling techniques, less likely to get unexpected results.

 

Thicken.png

 

 

As I start to try to understand the design intent - I would expect to see symmetry here -

 

Symmetry expectation.png


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Message 5 of 10
KatyBradford
in reply to: JDMather

Thanks for the tips  JDMather! It should be fairly symmetric and that does look a little off. However, it is meant to fit around an existing metal structure that may or may not be perfectly symmetric. Either way, modeling from solids sounds like a good idea! Should I be converting the surfaces to solids somehow or should I just make solids in the first place?


Message 6 of 10
KatyBradford
in reply to: JDMather

The line drawing is an exact representation of its inner skeleton, which will fit around the metal piece. It has all of the correct dimensions. Hope that helps!

Message 7 of 10
skintsubby
in reply to: KatyBradford

As JD says earlier in his post, and I agree with him.. You should really start from scratch, and just model it using Solids, rather than trying to fix the surfaces etc that you have.
Message 8 of 10
JDMather
in reply to: KatyBradford


@KatyBradford wrote:

The line drawing is an exact representation of its inner skeleton, which will fit around the metal piece. It has all of the correct dimensions. Hope that helps!


If you say so.

See attached. (5 minutes work)

I left of it for you to complete.


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Autodesk Inventor 2019 Certified Professional
Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Certified Professional
Certified SolidWorks Professional


The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel


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Message 9 of 10
KatyBradford
in reply to: skintsubby

Thank you! What commands would I use to do so?

Message 10 of 10
justshutup
in reply to: KatyBradford


@KatyBradford wrote:

Thank you! What commands would I use to do so?


 

 

Primitive shapes, extrude, loft, sweep, revolve, union, subtract, intersect, interfere, slice, separate, clean, shell, 3D Rotate, 3D Move, 3D Scale, 3D Mirror, and on, and on, and on....

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