So should I explode all of it and then make it a component? If I tried to do that without making it a component I would have to make one or more groups otherwise the objects would not be recognised as solids.
Surely if I do that I wont be able to select individual parts and have them interact as I would expect using subtract?
I’m very confused.
All I get when I follow your link is warnings of viruses and pop ups. Upload the file to the 3D Warehouse or Drop Box instead.
No you don’t! You’re making this more complicated than it needs to be.
No nesting is required if the the extrusion is a component. As I wrote before, the pegs used to cut the holes need to be solid components or groups. (This confusion between what is a group and what is a component is part of the problem and is easily avoided with my normal work flow of using components only.)
No. The extrusion should be a component and each peg should be a component or group. Each one of them must show as solid in Entity Info. Select the three entities, copy them with the Move tool and scale the three copies together. DO NOT make a nested component or group of the three. There’s no need for that step. If anything, that nesting is just getting in the way of you completing the process.
As far as getting the horizontal holes through the fence goes, there was nothing wrong with your file from yesterday. The extrusion is a solid component exactly as it should be.
The pegs are solid groups. I’d have used instances of a component but at least yours are solids.
Select the three entities together, copy them and while the copies are selected, scale them up.
I’ve mentioned this multiple times to you, too: Use Eneroth Solid Tools or BoolTools and not the native solid tools for the Trim/Subtract operation. The native Solid Tools convert the component to a group and cause this process to fail.
It seems like your profile is not a component, otherwise the small one should have a hole too…
FYI: the reason it did not work for you in the video was because the native solid tools convert components into groups after the operation.
If you are planning to do more of these operations, you might wanna consider Booltools:
No hassles or scale-up workarounds needed.
Thanks for your replies. How can it not be a component when it shows as one in the right click menu and I made it one in the first place?
That plugin looks great but I want to work with the native tools/free plugins as much as possible.
I have uploaded the file to dropbox as requested:
You’ve uploaded the .skb (backup) file, not the original .skp.
Is it not possible to open an SKB file? I have uploaded the SKP file as requested anyway:
Still trying. I’ve done another video showing me creating the aluminium profile from a flat shape and actually creating the component with the same end result.
@DaveR has mentioned multiple times that the standard solid tools will convert a component to a group, so he is suggesting you use Eneroth’s solid tools… You don’t want to do that, so you need to work with the solid tools correctly.
As you see in this gif, the subtract tool breaks the link between the components, but if you make the group and component a component and then use the solid tools subtract you’ll get two components containing the now modified groups. Many have been pointing out that this is a flaw in the solid tools for years and is the reason why there are other versions of solid tools.
When I have previously created a component from the profile and had a separate group for the pegs, the changes have not gone back to the original.
When I try combining the peg group and profile into a component, it groups works to a point.
I managed to make that work on two out of the four pegs before it reported that the third attempt was attempted on one or more non-solids.
I do think that there is a problem editing using the correct dimensions and enlarging does seem to improve that, but not when trying to edit something else at the correct size.
I have tried using Eneroths tools but each time I have tried it has not cut the holes properly at all. Perhaps if I could enlarge and my edits on the big version actually impacted upon the original then I might be able to get this to work.
Shorten the ‘dowels’ so they don’t touch the wings of the extrusion and it works without any scaling. The dowel is just touching the extrusion causing it to create holes when you use the solid tools rendering it non solid after the first action. So either shorten them or reduce their radius so the don’t touch.
I tried the operation with @eneroth3 Solid tools with the same results you are seeing. Looking at @Box gif, I noticed he is using the native Solid Tools. Following his suggestion of shortening the dowels the tool works as intended.
Wow, thanks so much for pointing this out. I can’t believe how simple it was in the end and how many hours I had spent trying to figure it out.
I was able to use the native tools just by shortening the dowels.
It’s crazy how something seemingly simply can end up being so long winded.
Yes, it’s possible by renaming it to .skp, but it won’t be the latest saved version.
Thank you for clarifying.
