boolean trouble

[Wayne Heim]

Hi. Hopefully someone can point out the mistake I'm making. I imported a line from adobe illustrator and then l Lathed it to then make a handle to a tool. I now have the tool handle but then need to cut or boolean out notches into the handle. I made a set of oval sphears to do this but when I boolean the handel the ovals just cut a hole in the surface of the handle.... as if the object is hollow. They dont leave the concave surace in the booleaned areas.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Wayne

[rakker16mm]

I've had similar problems with that work flow. You may have ended up with more polygons than you should have. If there is a second set of polygons on top of the first and facing in the opposite direction you may get unexpected results......


Well at least that is my theory and I have been wrong many more times than I have been right :D

[clumsycloudy]

did you curse right after it didnt work? Doesnt help but i think everyone does..

Honestly merge points before and look if you dont have any flipped polys or holes, keep bolean as simple as possible and dice your geometry up so the task gets easier..

cheers

[RudySchneider]

Depending on how the mesh of the oval spheres compare with your handle, the boolean operation may not completely "cut out" the surfaces you desire. You may need to manually delete these left over polygons. However, be certain you remember to always merge points ("m" hotkey) after a boolean operation.

I also suggest that, in addition to a description of your problem, you provide a screenshot, which may provide more info ("picture worth a 1000 words, and all that).

[Wayne Heim]

Thanks for the posts. It is not flipped polies. There is actually nothing there. If you try to click on the "flipped polies" to flip them back, you select the polies on the other side of the shape.

I basically started with a line.... say like a "C" shape. I lathed it to make a solid (or what I thought was a solid) object. I then tried to boolean a hole into it (take a bite out of it vs go all the way through). I get a hole i the shape vs the new concave (bite) surface geometry after the boolean.

The only way I could get it to work was to make a "D" shape that was a closed shap vs a line, then lathe it and boolean it. But then I get this line down the middle of the shape (from the streight edge of the "D" shape). Not a big deal unless it was going to end up semi transparent, which this one isn't but would like to know what I'm doing wrong.

Wayne

[JeffrySG]

It kind of sounds like to me that after you lathe you profile, it's not closing all the way, so LW thinks it's an open shape rather than a closed shape, so it only cuts a hole in the surface not a concave cutout.

[Silkrooster]

Thanks for the posts. It is not flipped polies. There is actually nothing there. If you try to click on the "flipped polies" to flip them back, you select the polies on the other side of the shape.

I basically started with a line.... say like a "C" shape. I lathed it to make a solid (or what I thought was a solid) object. I then tried to boolean a hole into it (take a bite out of it vs go all the way through). I get a hole i the shape vs the new concave (bite) surface geometry after the boolean.

The only way I could get it to work was to make a "D" shape that was a closed shap vs a line, then lathe it and boolean it. But then I get this line down the middle of the shape (from the streight edge of the "D" shape). Not a big deal unless it was going to end up semi transparent, which this one isn't but would like to know what I'm doing wrong.

Wayne
Rather than using the lathe tool to create a handle, try using the rail extrude tool.
As for objects being solid. Lightwave does not create solid objects. You can select any polygon, delete it and see inside it(if double sideed polys are turned on). The boolean tool is suppose to create new geometry to cover the sides of the hole it creates.
My guess about the line down the middle of the object, is the edge of the profile was not exactly at the 0 axis. Moving the profile away from the 0 axis creates a hole when you use the lathe tool.
Silk

[Surrealist.]

In theory this should work. Make sure you are using the correct boolean and you are doing all the other steps correctly.

Try this:

Simplify. Do a test.

Make a sphere. Make cylinder.

Cylinder in the BG: place it so it goes part way into the sphere. Sphere in the FG; cylinder in the BG. Use boolean subtract.

If this works - as it should - you"ll have cut into the object as if it was solid.

Now go back and see what part of the process is not working for your current object.