Make uniform wall thickness

[josephtatineni]

Hi,

I have a complex mesh with different wall thickness at different points and I wanted to make the wall thickness uniform across the entire mesh. Is this possible in Netfabb? If yes, how? If no, any alternatives?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Joe.

[steffen_anders_adsk]

Hello, @josephtatineni,

This is currently not available in Netfabb due to a bug.

Normally, I would suggest the workaround of using wall thickness analysis and its color gradient visualisation to generate a results part where that gradient is baked into vertex color information which you could then use in Texture & Color to extrude where needed, but unfortunately the bug in question prevents the analysis from generating that coloured output part, so, this is not available at this point. Sorry.

Kind regards,

Steffen

[g_kemp86KR7]

Hi, I was wondering if the above spoke of "bug" has been fixed in Netfabb now that it is 2024? If it is now possible to do this I would really be interested in knowing how.

I have the same need, I have many files that I would like to fix that don't have a uniform wall thickness. Some are very wonky like the one I attached (Truck Hood COE before).

I have tried to remove the inner surface and then extrude the new thickness but it does not come out properly on the edges, the original part thickness is not perpendicular to the outer surface in all places.

I would be happy with a workaround if there is one Truck Hood COE after)

[steffen_anders_adsk · Accepted solution]

Modeling work like that is not really Netfabb's forte, and not meant to be. As such, the extrusion algorithms aren't versatile enough to consider custom extrusion directions practically on a per-triangle level, especially along border edges (from removing triangles on the concave side), with or without a fully working extrusion map workflow. At best, you could perhaps use the original model, or regular plane clipping, to Boolean-trim the unwanted chamfer.

Generally, though, you would be better off with actual modeling or design software, like Fusion, to address the requirement.

[g_kemp86KR7]

Hi, okay, that is good to know. As it happens we have Fusion in our Autodesk subscription. I installed it and now I will have to learn a few new thing there and see if I can achieve the results I require.

Thanks for advice!

[steffen_anders_adsk]

Hello, @g_kemp86KR7,

No problem. Just bear in mind that Fusion is not fundamentally meant to work on meshes, like tools like Maya or Blender. While its understanding of triangle net representation has been vastly improved in the past 2-ish years, those mesh tools are still meant to "merely" support and complement the parametric modeling primarily. So, your workflow would likely be to use the original mesh shape, convert its contour to some parametric representation editable with CAD-typical design tools, generate the desired thickness, and finally return to mesh if needed.

An extension of this series of steps would be to just cut and trim the mesh in Netfabb to remove the thin-wall cowling section entirely while you generate just that section (with some overlap) in Fusion, and then merge the sections in either tool, whichever you find suits you better.

Here's a longer live stream that demonstrates working with meshes in Fusion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tMEtHIJV6c

Fusion training material is here. You'll probably want to start with the Introduction to Fusion courses and, given you've come here with a mesh model, possibly later the Manufacturing - Additive ones:

https://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/courses/

The online help itself is located here:

https://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/

Best regards,

Steffen