Create a cavity in a body to hold something

[jludwigC73AM]

I have a body representing the interior of an SKB case. I also have a body representing an audio mixer. I want to make a cavity for that mixer in that case.

I know that I can use the "Combine" function to subtract a body from another, but I also want all the space above the mixer to be gone, so I can drop it down inside the case.

In the attached model, I've situated the mixer where it should ultimately sit. I'm sure I could subtract it from the case, move it up slightly, subtract again, rinse repeat, but I assume there's a way to do that faster.

[jludwigC73AM]

That does seem to do largely what I want, thank you. I do happen to know, though, that the front angled side and the back angled side aren't parallel, so just extending it outward will change the final dimension of the length of the cavity. I think I could probably get away with it on this one, but I wouldn't want to use this method if the angles were more extreme in their difference.

I'll definitely keep this method in my mental toolkit, though. I knew there had to be something more elegant than what I was imagining.

[jeff_strater]

There is an even more elegant method coming.  We plan to release "Solid Sweep" in the not-too-distant future, which will allow you to essentially "push" a solid into another solid, creating what I think is exactly the cavity you want.  Stay tuned...

[MRWakefield · Accepted solution]

Have you had a look at 'Silhouette Split'?

I've not used it before but have used it on your model and it looks good to me. Basically I turned on 'Capture Design History' (not necessary but I do all my modelling with history on). I then performed a Silhouette Split on the Mixer body. Then I created a sketch on the top plane and projected the top face of the lower now split mixer body. I then extruded that sketch down to the split face of the lower half of the split body, removing all of the material in your Base body. Finally I recombined the two split halves of the mixer body. You might want to offset the sides of the pocket to give you some clearance.

Hope you find this useful.

Model is attached.

[MRWakefield]

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@jeff_strater wrote:

There is an even more elegant method coming.  We plan to release "Solid Sweep" in the not-too-distant future, which will allow you to essentially "push" a solid into another solid, creating what I think is exactly the cavity you want.  Stay tuned...

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That is fantastic news!😁

[jludwigC73AM]

Didn't even know this existed. I will absolutely look into using it. Thank you!

[jludwigC73AM]

Will this be available in the free version? It sounds like exactly what I want. Push a solid through another so that it leaves a properly shaped hole in its wake.

[TrippyLighting]

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@jeff_strater wrote:

There is an even more elegant method coming.  We plan to release "Solid Sweep" in the not-too-distant future, which will allow you to essentially "push" a solid into another solid, creating what I think is exactly the cavity you want.  Stay tuned...

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Yep. I wasn't even going to mention it. I've heard it on "channels" that include NDAs 😉

[MRWakefield]

Note that although this works for this particular case, if the component contains re-entrant geometry (like below) this method won't work without requiring further editing of the resulting pocket.

However, the newly 'announced' Solid Sweep feature will get over this 😁