Combine Into Surface

[inukcad]

This took way too many hours to figure out. Unless an entire surface is visible in the drawing area the combine into surface tool will not combine a composed surface completely. See attached. Component was zoomed into the top left corner of Montglen 3 when combine into surface tool was applied. Is it supposed to happen this way for a reason or is it an issue ?

Can anyone explain why when I use this tool I need to deselect the component and reselect the part I need and delete the newly created disk and negative....this too took me hours to figure out. :eek:

[Cris with no H]

I'm not really sure what you're asking. Can you restate the question? Talk slowly, I'm pretty stupid this time of night.

[inukcad]

I should know better to post after midnight. I'll try again. Basically I'm trying understand why the combine into surface tool work the way it does. I start with a 2d line drawing of the clock dial, composed it, then with the combine into surface tool select the dial and fill with color. (what I want is the skeleton shown highlighted in yellow) Instead of filling just the rings & numerals the tool fills the entire diameter, it took me ages to figure out that I had to deselect the component and separate the components created in that process. I don't get why the combine into surface tool should function this way - creating 2 additional components ( disk and negative) and hides the result I was looking for.

The other thing I found using this tool was that unless the entire component is visible in the drawing window it will not fill completely. In the second drawing above I was zoomed into the top left corner. Should the drawing window limit the tool ?

cheers

[Pat Stanford]

I am still not getting it.

Compose lets you make a single polyline out of a number of segments. The clock face has many discrete areas. Is it many composed objects? Or is is something else?

Did you make the "positive" clock face on the right or the "negative" clock face on the left?

There does seem to be a bug in VW2008 SP3 (and probably earlier) that the combine into surface does not notice some lines when they are not visible on screen. It does not appear to be a problem in VW2009.

[inukcad]

SP3 would make sense as I recently updated. I made the positive clock face on the right. Maybe it's a misunderstanding on my part. I assumed using this command would select the continuos area that ultimately makes the skeleton dial and ignore the 'see though' area, which it does, albeit hidden amongst 2 other entities - the disc and the negative.

End of the day I can manage but it seems a bit odd of an awkward process with the 2 other entities created.

Cheers

[Pat Stanford]

Can you send me a VW file with just the parts of the face in it? I would like to take a look and see if I can think of a better way.

Use the email address in my signature.