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+ | ====== How Do I Make a Solid Model? | ||
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+ | >What is a solid in Rhino? How do I get a good watertight .stl file from my Rhino objects? | ||
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+ | There has been quite a lot of good help offered in the production of STL files. The most important is simply this: | ||
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+ | The Rhino object must be a **closed solid** before a valid STL file can be generated. | ||
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+ | //<color darkslateblue> | ||
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+ | A solid has **no naked edges**. That's a concise definition. Another way to understand a solid is to see it as a balloon. If there is even a pin prick size hole, it will deflate. Thus it is not air/ | ||
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+ | //<color green>JB says: Use the **ShowEdges** command with the display set to "naked edges" to find the unjoined edges.</ | ||
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+ | The term " | ||
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+ | **[[rhino: | ||
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+ | =====Tolerances play a role in creating closed volumes===== | ||
+ | An understanding of **[[rhino: | ||
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+ | //<color green>JB says: Another rule is have your tolerance one order of magnitude tighter than the accuracy you can hold through your manufacturing process, or one order of magnitude smaller than your smallest modeled detail. | ||
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+ | //<color darkslateblue> | ||
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+ | =====Keeping stuff lined up===== | ||
+ | Using **snaps** and **object snaps** is extremely helpful, possibly essential to get edges to join up. | ||
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+ | =====Info on your object===== | ||
+ | **Analyzing** a Rhino object is an important part of the process. I find that the quickest way to check whether an object is a solid (<color darkslateblue> | ||
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+ | //<color green>JB says: Or you can use the **What** command if you don't usually have the Properties window open.</ | ||
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+ | =====Get solid advice===== | ||
+ | Post the objects you have trouble joining to the Rhino Newsgroup. You will get it if you keep trying. Just look for the naked edges and zoom way in on them. You will see what is not joined. Experience and practice bring understanding. It's basic stuff. Just keep modeling with an eye to producing solids from the beginning, and not as an afterthought. | ||
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+ | Once you have a **valid solid**, export it as an STL file. If you use the default 0.01 for the Maximum Distance, Edge to Surface, the stl file will be just fine for any machine currently out there. You can test your STL by reading it back into Rhino and doing ShowEdges with the Naked Edges option. | ||
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+ | //<color darkslateblue> | ||
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+ | Keep posting and asking questions, and work through the answers given! | ||
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+ | If anything here doesn' | ||
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+ | -Jeffrey Everett | ||
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+ | <color darkslateblue> | ||
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+ | ---- | ||
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+ | =====Other tips for getting valid solids===== | ||
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+ | ===Join as you go=== | ||
+ | Join parts and check your work as you model. | ||
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+ | ===Things that may cause naked edges=== | ||
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+ | Watch out for the way you trim surfaces. | ||
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+ | Rebuilding surfaces. This may cause the edges to change enough to be too far away to join, so be very careful here. | ||
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+ | The act of joining itself may cause naked edges. | ||
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+ | ===The JoinEdge crutch=== | ||
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+ | This command allows you to force edges together that are too far apart to join normally. | ||
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+ | ===The RebuildEdges command=== | ||
+ | This command will reset the edges of surfaces to (more or less) the way they were originally before joining. | ||
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+ | ===The dreaded one naked edge=== | ||
+ | If you get this, you have a problem. | ||
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+ | ===Make sure it's valid!=== | ||
+ | Make sure you've got a **valid** object. | ||
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+ | <color darkslateblue> | ||
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+ | ===Deal with the mesh instead of the surface edges=== | ||
+ | It is often possible and much quicker, to close up a mesh object using the mesh repair tools in the Mesh menu(V4) or Bonus menu(V3) than it is to get rid of pesky nakeds in a surface object. If your goal is rapid prototyping output via an STL or SLC file, try making a mesh object (Mesh command see also [[rhino: | ||
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