Merging multiple entities into a water tight single entity - some help please

trying2usecad
trying2usecad
in 3D Modeling

I spent all of yesterday trying to learn BricsCAD because it is highly recommended for Linux and I'm sick of Windows (I really enjoyed Rhino3D but it's not for Linux). So I put together this test project and I wanted to export it into STL for 3D printing... but after doing the modeling (which was a bear on its own), I cannot seem to merge multiple entities into a single entity for export as STL...

I'm really hoping someone can point me in the right direction on making this process easier. Please see the attached and let me know what the heck I'm doing wrong... I've tried DMStitch, DMSimplify, Union, DMAudit, etc. and I just can't seem to get this all to play nicely. In Rhino3D this stuff is wayyyyy easier. In about 4 hours I did projects (while learning along the way) far more complicated than this one, so I'm feeling very discouraged about BricsCAD at the moment. It also crashed several times during editing, which is not helpful... sigh

Thanks very much for any suggestions!

Comments

  • Roy Klein Gebbinck
    Roy Klein Gebbinck

    Two of the supports have somehow been exploded. You first have to turn them into solids again with the _DmStitch command. Then you can use the _Union command to create a single solid from the four elements.

  • Michael Mayer
    Michael Mayer

    Only the larger part is a Solid.

    The 3 smaller parts consist of Surfaces and Regions.
    But Stich Command worked for me for the 3 smaller parts.

    Then you have 4 Solids that you can Boolean Unite.

    But check that these 3 really touch the larger Solid.
    Otherwise it may not be water- or airtight and you may
    run into problems when printing.

  • Hans De Backer
    Hans De Backer

    BricsCAD is intended to be used as a direct modeler, using 3dSolids from the start and extruding and pushpulling them into shape.
    Other approaches where regions and surfaces are created in a first stage to become stitched in a next stage will be tedious.
    Looking at some of the modeling tutorials is probably time well spent if you want to enjoy using BricsCAD...

    As a consolation: I made a best guess at how you intended this cover to be modeled, hope I got close...
    Kind regards,
    Hans

  • Michael Mayer
    Michael Mayer
    edited March 2019

    Edit :
    Oh, no, the geometry seems corrupt.
    And it doesn't look really round (?)

    I would recreate it from scratch with real Solids and Direct Modeling.
    Like from clean 2D Profiles,
    extruded in Length but leaving a gap where elements should touch,
    cutting holes by (cut)-extruding Circles drawn on the Surface,
    finally connect to nearest to make all parts touch nicely
    and then the Union.