Making a shell of a mesh

[knattagh]

I am trying to make a shell of a mesh feature after I have upscaled it.

I do not think the regular shell technique will work as my mesh feature has hundreds of surfaces. So, I decided to open the file with my part in it and then derive the same part but a little bigger using the derive button. I would then subtract out the smaller, original, one to make a shell of the bigger, derived one.

Unfortunately, when I use this method to upscale, the 2 objects are not concentric so I cannot make the uniform shell that I want to. Any advice?

I have attached the file of my mesh feature in case you want to see it. Please not that you will have to convert the object you see on my file into a base feature before doing anything with it. I did not because it would have made the file to big to attach.

Thanks in advance

-Khash

[JDMather]

Do you have the original file?

This might be far easier if you first Convert to Solid in AutoCAD.

[knattagh]

Well I can convert it into a solid with inventor using the "convert to base feature" option when I right click menu. I believe I had to download a patch or something to have this option though.

Anyway, I wanted to attach the file with the solid but the file was too big...

Please let me know if there is anything else I can do.

[JDMather]

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@knattagh wrote:

Well I can convert it into a solid with inventor ....

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AutoCAD has functionality that will smooth out the surfaces and eliminate the facets in converting to solid.
Inventor does not have this function.

[knattagh]

The link below offers a dowload that enables me to make some kind of solid.

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/inventor_mesh

In any case, it's probably a better idea for me to work with autoCAD when dealing with mesh objects.

Thanks