So it isn’t! Drat. It was to start with, before intersection.
I had to stitch the opening after intersection, and Solid Inspector is complaining about Surface Borders and internal faces.
Will try to re-fix.
Fixed - split clover into halves, made each half solid by stitching open end where it intersects the boss, and mirrored.
KeyFobJWM.skp (204.2 KB)
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@john_mcclenahan did a great job of cleaning up the SketchUp model of the key fob … except for a couple of very minor details. Details that probably would not show up in the 3D printing … and almost certainly not in the final casting.
Regardless, once since I got started … I was determined to see this thru to the end. And with that in mind, here is a “clean” SKP file … and a “clean” STL file.
200426G_Key_Fob_04252020.stl (172.6 KB) 200426G_Key_Fob_04252020_V17.skp (1.8 MB)
One of the minor issues that @john_mcclenahan did not address has to do with the inside of the small circle … on the opposite side where the larger protrusion of the clover had to be removed. On the opposite side is a very minor intrusion from the outer circle.
The other … even less obvious … is the issue of the intersection of the clover and the outer circle on each side. As original modeled it was impossible to overlap the two shapes (outer circle and clover) without one or the other “pushing thru” at one of the four overlap points …
- outside right
- inside right
- inside left
- outside left
The only way I was able to fix this was to scale the outer ring up ever so slightly (1.05%). This way the clover does not stick thru the outer circle (on the outside) … and the outer ring does not stick thru the clover on the inside.
Also … @john_mcclenahan probably spent a lot of time removing the “flat” at the top of the outer ring and the clover. He did a great job … and it looks great. But the flat is what … 0.6mm wide? … so I just ignored it. And according to the Cura slicer … even on the “hi-res” setting … the top of the fob is a single FDM extrusion … as fine a line as the typical FDM printer can print. Now if you were using an SLA printer … then the extra precision of the fine edge on the model might be visible.
Last … but not least. My SketchUp model include two overlapping shapes … and the Cura slicer did not get confused. So there was no need to create a single group with no internal faces et cetera. I did not “look” at the intermediate STL file so I do not know what the resulting STL file contained … but the workflow for a FDM printer might not have been so forgiving.
So there you have it. Hope this is helpful. And, as @pbacot suggested … it would be interesting to see some pictures/videos of your foundry and the casting process.
Thank you. Actually, I redrew it from scratch.
And it was surprisingly difficult! I managed eventually to draw the three separate parts with native tools.
But FollowMe wouldn’t work for the clover, and nor would using the plugin Curviloft/Skin contours.
The oval was easy. Two concentric circles, then push pull up to half the height (which I have rounded to 70mm). Grab the lower inner circle, and Move it up to meet the other edge (or leave a ridge if you were to choose). Then Scale to width to make it oval.
Or you could for this one, I think, use FollowMe. And if you want the cross section to be the same all round the oval, expand the inner edge with Scale after reducing the whole thing to width.
The circular boss is easy - concentric circles and pushpull.
But the clover leaf was really hard. Eventually, to get the overall outline I drew overlapping circles, and edited the junctions. Then oFfset the outside - I thought! First effort looked horrible, so I redid it using concentric arcs.
I couldn’t quite get the same number of segments on outer and inner outlines, which made the profile hard to connect up properly.
But I did the same as for the oval - pushpull to half height, the move up the inner edge. Then mirror to get right half and mirror again to get top half.
Assemble the three pieces in register, make minor scale adjustments to get a better fit at the outer edges, Intersect faces, and clean up.
Not quite perfectly, as @egodsey says. But good enough to print. I hope! Must try it today or tomorrow at home.
Presumably your redraw of the key fob will print … but @dustin.t.coffey may not be able to use a part printed from your model as a pattern his foundry/casting project. The sides of the original SketchUp model of the key fob included a draft angle of slightly over 3 degrees on all of the vertical services. Draft angles on vertical surfaces are an important part of mold design … because without them removing a casting from the mold becomes problematic.
I’m stunned this has got to the 5th thread about this fob.
I already repaired and printed it some time ago. I will look later and see if I still have the repair gif and the model on this PC, I think it’s the one at home so you may be out of luck on that.
This isn’t about printing the key fob … it’s about using the print to make a mold for a casting.
You have to print it to use it to make the casting mold.
Well, I didn’t initially know there were prior threads. I took it up more as a personal challenge learning how to draw the rather complex cloverleaf shape than as a potential help to the OP.
So I don’t feel I’ve wasted my time, fortunately.
And I’m interested in the previous but one comment by @egodsey about leaving a draft angle for casting. I’ve never done a casting from a 3D print, so it’s interesting to be reminded of it.
Sorry, I’m not criticizing anyone here, just commenting.
I don’t think I took it as a criticism. But it does reming me to look for other posts by the same author, perhaps even in future before responding at all. Good habit for me to get into, I think. I sometimes dive in too quickly.
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Gentlemen thanks so much for all of your help. I was finally able to get it to the right place with your help and have been casting it and few other pieces over the past three days. It’s gone pretty well but now I’m running into the metal casting’s own set of problems. Always fun to take on a new challenge though, so I enjoy it. I’ll be sure to share my results and a little bit of my process when it all comes out.
@Box
That first round of the key fob that you helped me with went through review and then was changed by the client. I know it looks the same on the surface but some of the fine details changed and required me to remake it. I tried getting through the redesign using the pointers you gave me in the last round, but ran into all kinds of newbie issues. I truly appreciate the patience of this community and the excitement about new challenges! Such a wonderful thing. Peace.
I guess you should be using SketchUp Pro then, as SketchUp make is not allowed for commercial purposes…