Assembly to 3d print

kevin_mason558

We have developed a full sized shipping container in work with machinery inside, 
I have drawn these up in multiple part studios and different document and the whole thing is a mish-mash of ideas. - I'm still learning and haven't learnt the right order to do things. 

I also imported a file of a shipping container to begin with that had parts everywhere when I looked at the part studio. 

Now it's complete and working I wanted a model of the overal item to be printed to have on the shelf.
I've exported the assembly,
And imported it again into a new document so everything was together. Part studio has once again put all of the pieces into one pile. 

 what I want to do is either print a solid object as an ornament or to a make a shell of the entire container with a cut out in the top to store business cards - or something along that idea. 

I will look online to see if I can get it printed 
if I can get a model working first. 

What I need to know -  can I bring all the parts from an assembly into a part studio, to join them into a solid block, which I can then extrude a hole into. Or get printed as it is,
 There are loads of individual parts and want just the basic outer faces. 

Can anyone help please?

_anton

Try the Simplify custom feature: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/18394/new-custom-feature-simplify

S1mon

Apparently you can let the slicer merge a ton of parts. If you're 3D printing, as long as it's going to be structurally sound, you don't necessarily have to take the time to simplify the models.

kevin_mason558

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/82435232c3ad05cbe7231bf5/w/649ba5b62ce06b39cbfa70f9/e/d81276694291507217c1fba7

kevin_mason558

@S1mon what's the slicer? 

I don't have the equipment or knowledge for 3d printing it. 

But I want to get it modelled ready to be sent if I find someone who can do it for me. 

Thanks 

kevin_mason558

@_anton thanks I'll look into that tomorrow 

_anton

The slicer is the software that takes your model and turns it into gcode for your 3D printer to consume. Indeed, in may cases, it'll handle intersecting bodies and such. However, it's unlikely to produce satisfactory results from a model with lots of thin, detailed features, not without lots of support. It does depend, though, on your printer and the scale at which you want to print.

eric_pesty

If the simplify feature doesn't do what you want (I think it should...), you could create a part studio in context of the assembly and use "copy in in place" (in the transform tool) straight from the context entities to create a part studio with all the solids in the same place as in the assembly. I think that's what you were trying to do with the export/import but as you found out it keeps track of the part origins, this method would be a lot simpler...

kevin_mason558

@eric_pesty neither of these have worked this morning 
the computer fails to do the copy in place 
and the simplify failed too 

kevin_mason558

It is saying "simplify (inactive) 
and no parts have been created 

" 

eric_pesty

@kevin_mason558
What happens with the "copy in place"? Is there an error of some sort? If you select a lot of things it can take a moment to generate the parts, I would try selecting just one part to start with to make sure it's working and then ad more to your selection...

I haven't really used the "simplify" feature myself so I'm not sure what that means... Have you watched the "instructions" video for the simplify, I do remember there are a number of steps to take to make it "do something".

kevin_mason558

Can't remember off the top of my head 
I'll look again when I'm home 
I know the computer froze first of all 
it was running very slow trying to select all the parts 

I did watch the video for the simplify which I believe I followed correctly 

maybe because there's so many parts or when I imported the original file maybe something doesn't meet there 

kevin_mason558

@NeilCooke I have just watched the video again and you say to let you know if it doesn't work, 
you may be able to help show where I may be going wrong 

NeilCooke

Inactive means you haven’t checked the simplify button in the dialog. It is essentially doing a copy in place anyway. 

kevin_mason558

It kept freezing selecting all of the parts which Although I clicked the tick it wasn't working
i have tried doing it in sections now 
and these are working but trying to Boolean the seperate sections now has thrown a new error - 
"Boolean operation would result in non manifold body" 
what does this mean and is there a way to work out what part is the problem 
thanks