Solid Subtraction

[td4stage]

I am using VW/SL 11.5.1 and have a question regarding a simple solid subtraction. Lets say I have a solid object and then I subtract something out of the middle essentially cutting it into two separate pieces.

Is there a way to convert it into two separate solids?

thanks!

[propstuff]

Not sure about a simple way, but, well, here's one (clunky) way of doing it. (assumes there is a bit of clear space between the 2 bits)

Duplicate your subtraction.

Make a third solid that encompases one "half".

Select one of the subtractions and the new solid.

Do a Solid Intersection. You'll end up with one of your bits.

Repeat with the other Subtraction.

Like I said: clunky and limited.

A similar variation would be.

Duplicate your original solid and the subtracting solid.

Make a new solid that encompasses one half of the future subtraction and add it to one of the subtracting solids.

Subtract that object from one of the original solids. That will give you one half.

Repeat with the other bits for the second half.

There's bound to be other suggestions.

HTH,

N.

[ 12-12-2005, 12:06 AM: Message edited by: propstuff ]

[alanmac]

Can the object be split before its a 3D solid ?

Say you've drawn a face and then extruded that to create your solid object.

You could then use the clip surface command which would give you two pieces to then extrude to a 3D solid, and should make for a smaller file size.

Alan

[td4stage]

Not a bad idea, but many times, at least how I work when I design, I am not really sure where the "subtraction" will be until I see it in 3d space! But hey...this is another method!

Thanks alan!

[Andrew Bell@NV]

You could convert to nurbs, then select each part independently and call Add Solids on each.

[alanmac]

Patrick

I've tried to avoid solid subtraction because of the increased file sizes, but in its defence it does leave you with a fully editable object, and it's my favourite method of modelling, not taking into account file sizes.

I like the way you can go right back and change things all the way back to the original 3D object or 2D profile, then come back out and see your changed object.

The same can't be said for 2D shape clipping and merging etc. once its done thats it, other than using undo of course, to the limit of numbers you specify.

Sods law sayes the one you want is always the one before the last it gets to on its undo limit....ggrrr.

Alan

[Andrew Bell@NV]

Note that you can use symbols in solid operations if they have the right sort of contents. So in this case, you could turn the original solid into a symbol (leave an instance in place), duplicate it, and do various ops to split off the two pieces.

One other op to split things is split by line. However, that seems to be set up such that it won't split if you don't have any surfaces that intersect the splitting line. You could add an object on the split line to your solid, split by line, and then edit the original to remove that object on the split line.