Filling in Holes on a Contoured/Curved Surface?

[archienancarrow]

I've inherited a guitar contoured top which I am working on and edited to use as a template for my next custom CNC build. I'm happy with everything about it except that there are some cutout holes in the top which are in the wrong place. I need one erased and two moved up the body slightly. I will most probably need to erase them all and create new ones in a different location. However when removing the cutouts I can't get to a result which is consistent with the rest of the top.

Using Autocad I tried to fill these using the patch tool which just came out flat, or "saggy". I also tried filling with a separate object, which seems more reasonable as I could sand flush by hand once cut out, but would still prefer to get it right in CAD the first time.

I was previously using autocad until I discovered it is incapable of completing this task and was forwarded onto Inventor. Can someone help me with this one?

Attached are photos to show what's going on, and a DWG of the file.

Original Top

The Yellow circles are where they need to be moved to.

Filled with Patch Tool

Filled with Solid Object

[JDMather]

What version of Inventor do you have?

[JDMather]

Are you intended unit inches or mm?  (The file that you attached is inch - and huge geometry???

[JDMather · Accepted solution]

You can use Delete Face with the Heal option to remove these features.

[johnsonshiue · Accepted solution]

Hi! Yes, JD is right. You can use Delete Face -> Heal to remove the holes. Before you do that, you may want to repair the body. The 3D body checks very poorly in quality. Right-click on the base feature in Inventor -> Repair Bodies -> Find Errors -> select the body. Then do Heal Error with 0.00001mm tolerance. You can double-click on each remaining failure to see some options. Make sure the geometry is as tight as possible (0.00001mm). I usually would use Unstitch and then Stitch them back at 0.00001mm.

Many thanks!

[archienancarrow]

Hi, thank you for the replies, I have yet to go back and check my version, I will try this solution as soon as I am next able to get to my editing computer. My units are in mm on autocad and not inches, they seem to default to inches on saved files for whatever reason. 

[archienancarrow]

That all worked out better than I hoped. The only other thing I need to do is put those cutaway dips back in but in the new allotted places cut out in the top. Is there an easy way to do this? 

[JDMather]

Are you using Inventor?

Or are you using AutoCAD?

[archienancarrow]

I have a copy of both autocad and inventor on my computer. Currently I am working in inventor because it seems more suited to my needs. However I am much more used to autocad and it is more intuitive, so I tend to load back into that whenever joining and aligning models, or taking screen shots. 

[JDMather]

When you Attach files here - they should be Inventor *.ipt files, not AutoCAD *.dwg files.

[archienancarrow]

Hang on got it saved here