How to thicken part inwards

[ilia.vitsnudel]

Hello,

I am trying to thicken a part which is comprised of surfaces. Thickening outwards works Ok, but when I try to thicken inwards I am getting an "Error: The selected faces could not be offset.
Try adjusting the offset/thickness value or changing the selection of faces".

I understand that the error probably stems because different faces will intersect after thickening and it's not allowed, although I don't see why not to resolve it with some assumptions.

I need the thickening inwards because I don't want to increase the external volume of the part. Is there are any way to achieve the desired result? I need to thicken by 2mm.

Thank you in advance,

Ilia

[mango.freund]

Hi @ilia.vitsnudel ,so I noodled it like that.

thickened on the outside and then reduced in size. but watch out, maybe it has to be scaled differently in x / y / z.

I once made it uniform with 0.97534 and it doesn't look bad.  greetings mango

[ilia.vitsnudel]

Thanks for the suggestion. I actually tried it with various scale factors. The problem is if I do have "holes" in the part, like an opening for the gasoline or windows it is being reduced in size significantly and scaling back doesn't restore them to the original size.

[mango.freund]

you're right, but in this case you have push/pull or drill a hole in a solid piece is'nt un problem. mango

[ilia.vitsnudel]

Thanks, I have tried to make holes as you have suggested. It works, but the results are not that great. It looks unnatural and then there is a problem between the adjacent parts. Thickening outwards smooths the external edges and when two parts are combined there is nasty seam between them.

I am a bit lost here as how to proceed if I really want good looking results. I have tried to unstitch the part and then thicken it inward, which gave me good results except the border patches that still cannot be thickened inwards.

[mango.freund]

I can give you one last suggestion that should be good. take apart the volume body in the area of the surface. that means, you have a small space to delete and the volume body becomes a hollow surface body. then find the source of interference and delete it to re-raise it. close your hole again and ???? maybe that's it. - mango

[TrippyLighting]

Looking at the curvature map of this design I can see several areas of concern that would prevent this from thickening successfully.

Please share the original design including the T-spline this was created from!

[ilia.vitsnudel]

Thank you so much for your help. I think that I have succeeded to get approximately what I want by making a close patch surface from the outer boundary and then stitch this patch with the rest of the original surfaces to generate a solid body. The inner, created patch is a bit distorted, but I think I can fix it by carefully drafting the appropriate rails.

Thank you again for your valuable inputs. It is very reassuring to know that there is someone out there that can provide a helping hand. 🙂