Shell not Functioning on Complex Shape

[elliotirving44]

Hi there, 

First time posting on the fourms, but thought I would reach out for this little issue I'm having.

File is accessible here: (http://a360.co/2h4Ofd9). I cannot seem to shell the "Body 2" in this file (it's the larger one, with the loft). I am getting this error message when I try to give it a 0.7mm thickness on the inside: "Error: The operation could not create a valid result. Try adjusting the values or changing the inputs." Sometimes I even get the error message, "Error: The body could not be repaired after deleting faces. Try changing the selection, or use the Delete tool in the Patch workspace to delete geometry without repairing the gap." There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this design, the loft only consists of 3d splines as guides, and some different sketch layers. 

If someone could help me just shell the body to 0.7mm thickness, that would be great! Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Cheers,

Elliot

[kate.raskauskas]

Hi @elliotirving44,

Thanks for posting! I took a look at your model and I noticed that one of the faces on the lofted body has an odd "crease," as shown in the picture below. Taking the model into the Patch workspace, that was the only face I wasn't able to thicken after converting it. I think the issue may be from the way the rails interacted with the loft. Would it still work with your planned design if you were to change some of the rails to eliminate that crease?

I hope that helps!

Best,

[TrippyLighting]

You will have that issue every time you transition from a radius into  sharp corner. So change either has 2 sharp corners to do the lofting in-between, or have 2 radii.

[elliotirving44]

Hi,

Thank you so much for replying. I now see that there is that small "crease" in the 3D model (hard to see, but there nonetheless). I think that has to do with the small curve in the offset of "Sketch 2", which creates that small imperfection. Let me see if I can even that out. Thank you very much for your help! And thank you TrippyLighting for your info, will take that into consideration when trying to iron this out. Cheers!

- Elliot