Solidifying the Mesh

[sajith]

I need help to find the error in solifyfing the mesh. I created a topography using sandbox tool and i need solid model for 3D print

YUZAWA6skp.stl (1.2 MB)

[ateliernab]

hi, this is the stl result, could you share the skp file ? that’s where you need to make it solid, before exporting

[sajith]

YUZAWA6skp.skp (6.6 MB) Thank you very much for your promt reply. Here i attached my skp file

[ateliernab]

you need one group. no nested sub groups, no loose geometry.

right now that’s not what you have.

you have a group with the topography and part of the skirt, and inside, bits of the topography are also grouped.

that bit is groups in a group in a group.
you need one level.

install solid inspector. it’s a free extension that will tell you, as you progress, if your groups are solid or not. if they aren’t, it’ll tell you why. and when they’re solid, you’ll be able to fuse or substract them. right now your groups are made of flying faces here and there, volumes with thickness, other with missing faces.

so right now, because I don’t have all morning, I exploded all the groups until I only had faces left, selected all / intersected them with the selection. it took a few minutes.

here is what remains to be done :

look from the bottom up. and erase all the bits that are hidden underground. take your time, if you make a mistake, cancel it. and if you see holes (actual ones with the blue sky through), close them using triangles.
and from time to time, close the bottom face, exit the group, and check what solid inspector has to say. maybe some element it can take care of. maybe you have to do it manually.

people often work their complex 3D prints from the outside. but in truth, a lot of the cleaning happens inside out.

here is what a completely clean models looks lie from the inside :

perfectly empty. think of it like making sandcastles

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your file, time to clean the insides :

time to clean.skp (7.0 MB)

[sajith]

@ateliernab

people often work their complex 3D prints from the outside. but in truth, a lot of the cleaning happens inside out.

here is what a completely clean models looks lie from the inside :

Thank you very much for your detailed explaration. I will follow your instructions