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How to thicken & hollow a complex object ?

luca_thommenluca_thommen Member Posts: 2 EDU
Hello,

First of all, apologies if it is not in the good format or place as I am fairly new to Onshape, or if this has been answered already - though I looked for an answer and didn't really find one. And finally, english isn't my native language but I'll do my best !

Here is my issue : I have a 3D object that represents the inside of a channel (a biological one), with some degree of tortuosity, and what I want is to get another object that represents an outer "skin" of the first one (with some thickness). For example, if my initial object was a cylinder, I would like to obtain a tube of inner diameter the outer diameter of the cylinder.

For simple shapes such as a cylinder I think I would get it, I thought about using the 'Thicken' tool for example, or creating an enlarged copy and then using a Boolean to substract the first object... But in my case both of these options are not bearing fruit. It may also be linked to the format of my object. I attach a screenshot of the 3D object I’m working with as I think it will make it a bit clearer. If you have any ideas on how to reach my goal, don’t hesitate as I am in quite a dead-end on my part ! Thank you for your time !


Luca


Answers

  • S1monS1mon Member Posts: 2,321 PRO
    edited July 2022
    Unfortunately, the fastest way I'm aware of to shell a mesh would be to use Rhino or some other tool with more mesh manipulation features.

    https://docs.mcneel.com/rhino/5/help/en-us/commands/offsetmesh.htm
  • luca_thommenluca_thommen Member Posts: 2 EDU
    Hello,

    Thank you for your answer. I am not familiar with Rhino unfortunately... But I am not sure I can afford a license for this task alone. Would you by any chance know of a more accessible software ? Thanks again for sadly confirming what I thought about the feasibility on Onshape.

  • S1monS1mon Member Posts: 2,321 PRO
    If it’s just a short term thing, Rhino’s trial license is fully featured for 90 days. The educational license is $195.

    There are free tools like Blender.
  • dirk_van_der_vaartdirk_van_der_vaart Member Posts: 533 ✭✭✭
    You could use Freecad for this, here's a tutorial.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYc3BtkUtfI

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