How to add a face to an object

[Anonymous]

I had no idea how to word the title this question, sorry.

I made an illustrator file, which I exploded, then joined again to make sure was making a closed polyline. I extruded it in the attempts to subtract it from an object. Here is an image of the output.

I can't figure out how to create a face for that text. What I mean by face is making the text itself to be engraved, and not just the path of the letters.

And also I tried extruding the crosshair to the left in the image and I got an error: "Cannot sweep or extrude a self-intersecting curve."

Does anyone know how I can get around that?

Thanks in advance

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> What I mean by face is making the text itself to

>> be engraved, and not just the path of the letters

Did you try command _EXTRUDE as well as command _PRESSPULL? Do both return with surfaces instead of 3D-solids (so the cap's for the letters are closed)?

When getting outline from other software which works spline based most times the contours are either self-intersecting or segments or vertices within this contour are doubled. That's why a 3D-solid can't be created.

Besides of _PRESSPULL you might also try

• create a new contour using command _BOUNDARY and then extrude this new region/polyline (whatever is the resulting object)
• use command _OVERKILL to try to cleanup the the imported paths before running _EXTRUDE/_PRESSPULL

- alfred -

[leeminardi]

If the P and R are truly closed polylines then extruding them should result in solid objects.  Note, the polyline property for closed may indicate yes or no for a polyline that is closed.  Yes here indicates that the polyline's last vertex is not the same as the first but that the closed flag has been set.  A no for the colosed property could still indicate a closed polyline but closure is achieved by having the first and last vertices coincident.  Either way a solid should be created when you extrude a "closed" polyline.   My guess is that the polyline is not closed.  It is difficult to tell from the image but it looks like the shape may have an excessive number of vertices.   Another thing to try is to place a surface on the top and bottom of the letters and use surfsculpt to make a solid. This will not work if there is a gap in the perimeter of the shape.

As for the crosshair I would examine it closely for self-intersections and use the pedit command to walk around around its perimeter  (pedit, e then [Enter][Enter][Enter][Enter][Enter] and see if the marker backtracks. 

Can you post a file with the letters and the crosshair.   

[beyoungjr]

Hi,

Looks to me like the objects in your file are somewhat concave, or am I wrong?

If the objects are flat in the Z axis and you are able to create walls only then you could try to create a REGION first then EXTRUDE the REGION.

You might also be able to EXTRACT EDGES of your 3D surfaces and use only the new top edges to JOIN and generate new closed polylines, which might EXTRUDE better.

If concave then focus on flat first and then you could subtract a cylinder or sphere to work out that effect later.

We could guide you a little better if we had a file to open and analyze.

Cheers,

Blaine

[JamesMaeding]

remake the closed plines using bpoly command. I run into the "self intersecting" issue all the time.

Save the drawing before running bpoly. Hatch, bpoly, and anything that "flood fills" to get a boundary is unstable. It may look forever. Set view to top, and just zoom into your existing plines. If bpoly finds a closed region, and makes the pline, they normally work for sweep and extrude.

[Anonymous]

I've tried exploding, overkill, rejoining. No go.

I've attached the file. I'd like to learn and not just have someone do it for me.

So I have a projection layer you'll see. I used that to project to text onto the curved surface.

I then extrude the projection which, you are correct, is curved. Can I only extrude a flat surface?

[beyoungjr · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Here are some steps I tried that might give you what you want.  The term for this design element is Emboss or Deboss and AutoCAD does not extrude or press-pull non-flat objects.

1. Change to WCS coordinate system (World)
2. Turn on the Projection layer to reveal your flat profiles.
3. Re-align and position the flat profiles to align with the outside radius of your card holder and toward its center.
4. Press-pull or extrude the flat objects to -1 unit (I moved the card holder solid 12 units in the X axis to avoid confusion in this).
5. Move the card holder solid back to original position.
   ** Observe the 3D solid logo objects project through the front face by 1 unit.
6. Copy all objects to a distance in the X axis.
7. Use the Subtract command to remove the card holder from the logo solids (the logo will now appear to be a broken solid set).
8. Use the Separate Solids command to separate the logo objects.
9. Delete the inner objects.
   **The outer objects can now be moved along the radial path to a desired depth on the card holder face.

My steps above do not detail every move so if you wish to get more detail I'll be happy to write more or do a Screencast.

Does the following image reveal your desired outcome?

Cheers,

Blaine

[Anonymous]

Your steps were amazing. I learned through tutorials online and didn't know you can't extrude a curve, so that alone helped so much.

I got to the final step, but there seems to be something wrong I can't figure out. First time having this problem, but the extruded text won't subtract from the card holder. I've attached the file.

I thought maybe you can't subtract from different layers, so I tried in a new file, and worked just fine, so I'm not sure why it's not subtracting.

[beyoungjr]

Hi,

I see that you have been successful in the positioning of the items you wish to subtract but unfortunately the items have become regions and surfaces.  You must subtract solids from solids.  The other objects that are 5 units to the right of the primary are solids.

Something must have happened while you were constructing?

The regions and surfaces appear to intersect with the card holder very well so positioning is great but those objects will not subtract.

Solution...

1. Delete the all of the items that you have at the card holder face.
2. Copy the card holder 5 units to the right so that the logo solids intersect.
3. Subtract the copied card holder from the logo solids (select all of the logo solids at once for the subtract from items).
4. Separate the logo solids that become gapped from the subtraction.
5. Delete the non-frontal logo solids.
6. Copy the frontal logo solids 5 units to left so they are on the face of the initial card holder.
7. Move them into the card holder by you desired amount.
8. Subtract the logo solids from the card holder.

Hope that works for ya,

Blaine

[Anonymous]

Same issue, but I've figured out what is happening.

I started again from step one of extruding the Projection layer, clicking on the extruded text every step to see when it turns into a region.

It turns into a region when I use the SEPARATE command; subtracting the card holder shape from the extruded text.

A side note: I also looked up how to convert regions to Solids, and in the research some people were recommending Mechanical Desktop to be able to do this. 

Am I using the correct software do you think? Or is there a better application for custom design work?

It could be that I'm still really new to this that it's taking so long, or is it I'm not using the right tools?

[beyoungjr]

Very strange... I used the 3D solids you had and I subtracted the card holder from them.  They combined but remained as a single 3D solid.  I then used Separate and they divided into individual 3D solids.  Cannot figure out how yours are exploding into regions?

"Mechanical Desktop" is an old vertical product of AutoCAD.  The modern equivalent is just "Mechanical".  You do not need Mechanical to accomplish the task you are working on.

I am using plain AutoCAD 2019 (often referred to as Vanilla) but the process we are working through is the same command sets for many years/versions prior.

Screencast demo >here< just to make sure you can get a result in the same way as I am.

Blaine

[Anonymous]

I'm think it's because you're using 2019. I'm on 2018 student version. I will check our school's site if 2019 is available yet or not. I read that all the "toolsets" are included in 2019, so that must be auto-correcting it for you.

Here's a screen capture of what's happening on my end.

I mess up the first go by not selecting everything, excuse that moment lol.

[beyoungjr]

No difference between 2018 and 2019 or student vs paid versions.

You used EXPLODE!  That is what is turning your solids to regions or surfaces.

You must use the solid editing tool for Separate.  I don't know the Mac menus for where to find it but the long form would be:

SOLEDIT enter

choose Body

choose Separate

select the solids to divide.

[Anonymous]

Omg. I apologize. First of all, I meant to start this thread in the for MAC forum lol. And second, using the command SEPARATE in mac brings up SEPARATE (EXPLODE). 

@maxim_k, you've helped me a lot so far, I was just wondering if you knew the mac equivalent for the solid separate tool?

[beyoungjr · Accepted solution]

The Separate icon on ACAD for Windows is just a subset from the SOLIDEDIT command, mentioned steps in last post.

It's okay that you came to the regular forum as it was certainly a functional question at first and not specific to Mac.

Does SOLIDEDIT bring up the chain of options I mentioned before?

Blaine

[Anonymous]

Your previous message was "SOLEDIT" So I kept trying to find the wrong thing lol 

I did the SOLIDEDIT command, and it worked 

Thanks for all your time m8! I'll post something up when I get it made to show you how it came out 🙂

Thanks again :D:D

[bradley_huntley]

im having a similer issue but its with the text tool in Autocad, 
my goal was to make some name plates so i used the text tool to type the names out then i exploded the text to turn into lines.

now im trying to export this off to my 3dprinter but i realised the top and bettem faces arnt there so it cant be exported as an STL, ive tryed the proposed solutions for the issue but its not working, is there something im missing