topic Re: Trying to convert my surfaces in AutoCAD to be 3D so I can 3D print in AutoCAD Forum

Trying to convert my surfaces in AutoCAD to be 3D so I can 3D print

mes063 — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 22:27:39 GMT

Hello. I created my figure in AutoCAD using 3D polylines. It is a figure that resembles the an origami technique. I then offsetted these 3d polylines a certain distance downward in the z direction and connected the two sets of 3d polylines to try to make this figure 3 dimensional. I filled in this 3 dimensional part so it resembles a 3d surface. I want to try to convert this into an stl file so I can 3d print, but whenever I try to do so I get an error. It says to select solids or watertight meshes. I try to select my figure and it says 616 options found and 616 options filtered out. I want to figure out how I can make my figure a solid or watertight mesh so it can be converted into an stl file.

Re: Trying to convert my surfaces in AutoCAD to be 3D so I can 3D print

j.palmeL29YX — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 05:08:03 GMT

I guess in the moment you have only surfaces, but you will need solids.

Maybe you can thicken your surfaces to solids. However this is just a shot in the dark. For a better help you should upload your file here.

Re: Trying to convert my surfaces in AutoCAD to be 3D so I can 3D print

leeminardi — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 14:58:29 GMT

To create an stl file you need a single 3D solid object.

You can offset lines as you did in the z direction to get lines you can use to create a surface from which you can use thicken to create solids for each segment of your structure. You can then use Boolean union to make a single solid. This can be exported as an stl file.

Note, when you offset in Z you will have segments that are of different widths. For example, in the image below the red lines and green lines are offset in Z by the same amount but the perpendicular distance between the red lines is greater than that of the green lines.

Converting pairs of offset lines to surfaces with loft and then using thicken to convert the surfaces to solids and then unioning the solids may yield the following:

Note that additional attention may be needed as to how you want to deal with the corners.

Re: Trying to convert my surfaces in AutoCAD to be 3D so I can 3D print

mes063 — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 15:16:57 GMT

Awesome! Thanks so much for your help. I took your advice and it worked very well.

Is there anything you would recommend doing to fix the issues with the corners. Mine are misaligned and I am not sure if there is an easy fix to this.

Re: Trying to convert my surfaces in AutoCAD to be 3D so I can 3D print

leeminardi — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 15:37:37 GMT

Can you post a picture or a file showing the misalignment?

Re: Trying to convert my surfaces in AutoCAD to be 3D so I can 3D print

mes063 — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 15:47:50 GMT

Here is my attached AutoCAD file. I used the thicken command and am now trying to figure out if there would be an easy way to fix the misalignment at the corners. Thank you for all of your help. I am new to AutoCAD and still learning.