Decomposing Solids and difficult Extrudes

[MattG]

I have this Triangular display piece. I am trying to draw what it is going to be. The problem I am running into is that I want to slice it into the pieces it is going to be. So each corner is going to be mitered and it's own piece and I cannot seem to get that worked out.

I took the shape I was going to use and drew a polygon of it then offset that by the thickness I wanted. Clipped the surfaces and deleted the unwanted surface. Extruded the surface and then sliced it diagonally because it is raked. Now I want to slice the corners so they miter and can show how it is going to be built. However when I slice I actually slice the entire object. I am using the middle mode. Is there a good way to do this?

Next part would be that we want to put some trim around the side sort of a rubber bumper. Think like a small piece of angle iron, but rubber that traces the entire thing. Any thought on how to create that?

Matt

Edited September 30, 2009 by MattG

[Pat Stanford]

Since it is a single object, there is no way to just make a cut across one side. Try this:

Make a vertical cut (using the split tool in the second mode as you stated) from the middle of the short edge to the middle of the top edge.

Now since you have "Open" objects, when you split them to miter the corners, they will be able to become two objects. Once you have mitered both corners of the short edge, select the two pieces and Add Solids. You will now have a single piece with mitered corners.

In the future, It might be easier to do the initial work in 2D with polygons that can be trimmed and then extruded and tapered rather than trying to generate parts from an existing 3D piece.

For the bumper, draw a polygon around the outside of the case. Draw the profile of the bumper. Select both and do Extrude Along Path. Now double click on the extrude and edit the profile group. Move the profile so that the point you want to run along the Path is at the 0,0 point and exit the group.

You should now have your bumper. Look in a Front/Side/Iso view and adjust the Z height to what it should be.

[ionw]

Hi Matt,

I think I understood what you were after.

To section the display piece, I entered the section then the extrude to get back to the original polyline you extruded. I decomposed that, and added the miter lines and then recomposed to get four polylines that represented the four sides with meeting mitered corners.

I exited the extrude and then ungrouped the extrude giving me four extrudes representing the four sides.

I exited the section then option-clicked the section three times to give me four copies. Then entering each of the sections, I simply deleted three of the extrudes from each of those extrudes, so that I had four sections each with a separate wall.

To put in the base, I used the extract curves command to get a path that went around the base.

I drew a quick profile of the base that I wanted, then used the extrude along path command to wrap it around the display piece. After running the command, one has to edit the profile so that it wraps correctly. that is trial and error, but it is usually fairly simple.

HTH,

Ion

[mike m oz]

Two ways you could try:

- Model it with Walls with Caps on for all segments. Then model an inclined plane and use the Fit walls to Roof command to get the tops to the right slope.

- Model each segment separately and extrude them higher than they need to be. Switch to a side view and use the Split tool in Split by Line mode to cut them into two along the required plane. Discard the top portions.

Use the Extract Curve mode of the Extract tool to create a path which you can extrude your angle along.

In the attached drawing I have used the second method and extracted the curve for you.