How to export drawing into STL format

How to export drawing into STL format

emmyfTSQWG
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Message 1 of 7

How to export drawing into STL format

emmyfTSQWG
Explorer
Explorer

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.

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Message 2 of 7

Patchy
Mentor
Mentor

The hole is here:

big hole.JPG

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Message 3 of 7

emmyfTSQWG
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Explorer

thank you!

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Message 4 of 7

emmyfTSQWG
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Explorer

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

 

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Message 5 of 7

leeminardi
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Mentor

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.

leeminardi_0-1699496030173.png

 

 

lee.minardi
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Message 6 of 7

emmyfTSQWG
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Explorer

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? 

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Message 7 of 7

leeminardi
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Accepted solution

@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.

leeminardi_0-1699550744285.png

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

leeminardi_1-1699550944212.pngleeminardi_2-1699551062255.png

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.

leeminardi_3-1699551918406.png

Surfsculpt is then used to create a solid. 

leeminardi_4-1699551998151.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

lee.minardi
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