Fill a Void Area within a Body

[kevinwatts]

I need a method to fill a void/cavity inside a design so that it is solid.

In this case Extrude/Push-Pull does not seem to provide the solution.

The shape inside the body is irregular. Below is a simple illustration of the problem. The internal “Void/Cavity” is caused by the curvature of the outside sphere/shape. Is there a way to fill all the empty space between the interior and exterior walls?

Please and thankyou.

[HughesTooling]

Can you make a sketch of one of the D shapes then use revolve join to fill the void. Another thought try selecting the 2 inner surfaces and delete, you'll need to be in the model workspace for it to auto-heal.

Mark

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @kevinwatts,

Also going off of @HughesTooling idea - if you were to just patch up those holes (or even use a plane if they are perferectly planar with each other), you could then use Boundary Fill in the Create Menu. Boundary Fill is a really neat tool that creates volumes in encapsulated areas. Let me know if you need some help with this method!

Thanks,

[kevinwatts]

Thank you Mark & James.

The Boundary Fill sounds like what I need but I have not tried that before. Perhaps there is a tutorial? The voids that I must fill are not as simple as the example that I showed. One of them is between walls/solid faces with no visible way to view from outside the body. I had to use Section analysis to see find it. 

I will try the suggestions and report back.

Kevin

[PhilProcarioJr]

@kevinwatts

Here is the easiest way that I know of for the problem you describe.. Using the Patch Environment select the faces of the internal cavity and delete them. To do this you hold down the control key and left click and hold until the menu comes up. Select the face and repeat while holding the ctrl key to select all the internal faces. Then sticth the surface back together to make it a solid again.

[PhilProcarioJr]

@kevinwatts

Here is how to fix the other case.

[HughesTooling]

Hey Phil, there's an easier way for your last example. Stay in the model workspace, select the 2 faces that form the D and delete., in the model workspace it will auto heal.

Mark

[PhilProcarioJr]

@HughesTooling

I do use that method sometimes, but it depends on the complexity of the model as I have had that fail if the model is real complex.

Thanks for the heads up though.

[kevinwatts]

I have tried several of the methods sugested. The inner cavity/void is a complex shape.

In the Model Workspace, the Create Menu --> Boundary Fill method allows me to create a solid body of the inner cavity/void. It will not allow me to Join the two when creating it. I am now looking at trying to join/merge the two bodies together to form one without inner gaps.

[I_Forge_KC]

Did the MODIFY > COMBINE tool work?

[kevinwatts · Accepted solution]

I tried serveral of the sugestions and was able to fill the cavity/void within the housing!

Boundary Fill

Staying in the Model Workspace and working with Components, the "KEY" to filling a void/cavity within a body is to make the component (or sub-component) Active. If you do not, you can not JOIN the new material with the body that you are trying to fill. Otherwise Boundary Fill will create a separate Body, which is great if you need a "mold" or "casting" of the inside of a part.

Here is a simple and clear video of the process. Just remember to make the Component active if you want to Join it together in to one body.

Use the boundary fill function – simple and good tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB_yNaTDZcI

The other methods mentioned above by both Mark, James and Phil are alternative approaches. Which workspace you are in and the complexity of the interior surface will determine which method will work best for you. The interior cavity/void that I had to fill was complex.

I appreciate everyone's suggestions and help to get past this roadblock!

Kevin

[kevinwatts]

Thank you for the suggestion Kenny.

In my last post I describe what worked for me. I had forgotten that the part I was trying to fill was a sub-component of a component. The Boundary Fill method worked well once I had the area defined. After I had to rename the body within the target sub-component as the program JOINS the two bodies (created and existing) and assigns a generic name. 

[troygATJ4L]

Just what I needed! Spent an entire day trying to figure this out!!  Thanks for shoving me in the right direction!  The video leaves out some important information but a commenter posted the solution there.

Awesome community!