How to "Hollow Out" Material in Unnecessary Areas

[tranq006]

Hello All,

I have been wondering if there was a better way to do this for a while now. In the picture I attached the model I am wanting to print out (it holds some specialized bits). However, I am wondering if there is a good way in Fusion 360 (or perhaps in Blender?) to hog out material that is unnecessary (skeletize it a bit) while still retaining material where needed (ie around the extruded cuts) in order to reduce material and print time. I've attached 2 screenshots of examples of what I am talking about. Is there an easier and more efficient way to do this besides manually removing patterned material? Thanks so much

[g-andresen]

Hi,

Please share the file for reply.

File > export > save as f3d on local drive  > attach to post.

günther

[wersy]

Why don't you control this with appropriately adjusted infill?

[tranq006]

attached here

[tranq006]

Hello, I have attached it here

[tranq006]

Adjusting infill marginally changes the amount of filament used and the print time, I am looking to thin out parts systematically on this and other parts.

[laughingcreek · Accepted solution]

sounds like your looking for "shell"

[tranq006]

Perfect, I never thought of using shell here. Thanks. I also thought of a cool way to make the design I had in my head, take a rectangular block and create that patterned skeleton shown in the images, then do a boolean add with a solid representing the "negative space" plus some thickness. I will play around with that.  Cheers

[wersy]

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@tranq006  schrieb:

Perfect, I never thought of using shell here. Thanks.

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If you use shell you will need support. I don't know if that is in your interest.

[tranq006]

I found out the pattern I was looking for is called Voronoi pattern and can be performed in meshmixer. I will do voronoi pattern on the solid block, then combine with the shelled solid and subtract the negative space to get what I had in mind. I will update this post once I have done that

[tranq006 · Accepted solution]

For anyone viewing this later, I found the perfect feature within Fusion 360 is "Volumetric Lattice" and is within the product design extension (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6liMt7ntLo4)

I was able to get the result I wanted, it preserves geometry needed to hold the components while hollowing it out and creating a cool look. Interestingly, the volumetric lattice method requires much more filament and print time then printing the solid object with regular infill, or the shelled out version (see attached images from PrusaSlicer). Either way, cool new feature to be aware of