topic Re: How to export drawing into STL format in AutoCAD Forum

How to export drawing into STL format

emmyfTSQWG — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 21:44:00 GMT

Says my drawing is not a solid or watertight mesh, how can I fix this? It wont let me make it into a watertight mesh, although I have no holes in my drawing, looking for some guidance, I am pretty new to AutoCAD.

Re: How to export drawing into STL format

Patchy — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 01:36:12 GMT

The hole is here:

Re: How to export drawing into STL format

emmyfTSQWG — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 01:37:12 GMT

thank you!

Re: How to export drawing into STL format

emmyfTSQWG — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 01:42:18 GMT

Just wondering, how would I go upon closing this hole?

Re: How to export drawing into STL format

leeminardi — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 02:15:06 GMT

You can use the thicken command to make the yellow and green components of the chair solid. I thickened by 1.0 and was successful.

The magenta pieces have too tight of a curvature to enable the use of thicken. I suggest defining a series of closed splines and with a path or guide use loft to create solids for these pieces.

Re: How to export drawing into STL format

emmyfTSQWG — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 16:51:19 GMT

Thanks for the reply, i tried lofting and changed the drafting angle to be larger so the corners less sharp, however im still encountering some holes up close, how can I fix this?

Re: How to export drawing into STL format

leeminardi — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 17:47:11 GMT

@emmyfTSQWG wrote:
Thanks for the reply, i tried lofting and changed the drafting angle to be larger so the corners less sharp, however im still encountering some holes up close, how can I fix this?

In short, be more carefull and surfsculpt will work better if mating surfaces intersect and are not just flush.

For example, I isloated one of your surfaces and exploded it. I then created a series of short lines along one edge using osnap nearest. I referenced these line to create a UCS using the ZA method. With a UCS defined that was roughy perpendicular to the flow of the shape I created closed splines being careful to go in the same direction (e.g., CCW) for each section.

Using the loft command select each section in order then hit space key and the G (for guide) and select the spline (red).

For a better match, create additional sections.

Even though the sections were closed shapes the resulting geomery was a NURBS surface and not a solid (surprise!).

I added a couple of planes at the ends to try to create a watertight surface model that could be referenced by surfsculpt. I find that it is sometimes better to have surfaces intersect than just be flush. For example, I moved the end planes in a bit as can be seen here.

Surfsculpt is then used to create a solid.