TWO Questions : swap front/back of patch, join patch to model?

[Anonymous]

 I have been working on a model that uses both patches and model lofts.  

First problem I have is that some patches show the "front" side and others show the "back" side (textured side vs. the light beige color). Is there a way to specify which face is "front" or "back"?

Second issue is that the part I am making contains both model lofts, push/pulls, and more complex surfaces use the patch tool.  I know that I can merge parts made with patches, and parts made with models, but what about parts that use both?

I cant seem to make the multiple bodies into one body.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Hi

For your first question, you can flip patches by using the 'Reverse Normal' command (see below). 

Second one I am not entrely sure but you could try the 'Boundary Fill' once you have all your lofts and surfaces in place.

Niels

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the "Reverse/Normal", I knew it could be done, wasnt sure how.

As far as boundary that is what I do normally, but it doesnt want to join patches to something made with the "Model" tab.  I can get it to merge Model to "Model parts, and Patch to Patch parts, but not Model to Patch.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hey Rbarr, the guitar king 😉  In general, what I would recommend, is when working in Patch environment, to use patches and other surfaces to make closed volumes, at which point when Stitch is used, (may need to adjust tolerance as you're well aware) a successfully stitched closed surface will automatically be converted to a solid body, which can then be merged with other bodies.  A word of caution, when surfaces are used to make bodies, you can end up with very sharp edges, which often need to be filleted in Model environment (once the stitch operation converts to a solid body) in order to perform operations like Merging, Shelling, etc. 

Of course in you run into specific problems be sure to post the exported .f3d.

Jesse