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So I am playing around with Blender and it's wonderful. Great software, very intuitive but complex.

Basically, I create a shape, a box, a toroid, a cylinder. I perform some simple deforms, stretch and twist it a bit and I use the 'screw' modifier.

GREAT!

enter image description here

Now I'd really like to print this shell.

I use the slicing software but it's full of internal geometry.

THE QUESTION:

Are there any actions I can perform to slice this thing up into pieces, select the outer shell and copy it, or delete everything internal that is not visible?

I'm not the only one asking and there has to be a simple way to do this, I am very sure.

We 3D-print people are desperately looking for a way to intuitively create some shape and just print the outer shell, what's visible.

THE PERFECT SOLUTION:

That would really be a button that says: 'extract exterior' or 'copy exterior' or just any way to select the outer shell.

This object is just a bunch of faces and the slicing software does a perfect job with this model, all that's in the way of printing it is all of the internal geometry.

I have performed this action of removing all internal geometry on another model I downloaded but it was already chopped into separate vertices I could remove.

The problem really is that the exterior is connected to the interior so I'm really looking for an easy way to deconnect that and seperate the external from the internal..

Thank you in advance.

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  • $\begingroup$ Did you try the Voxel Remesher operator? $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 5, 2020 at 21:49

5 Answers 5

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There are a few solutions that I use.

1) booleans - if the models is without errors like double faces etc. and the boolean works, just make union and then triangulate faces to avoid necessary ngons

2) I used external software meshmixer, its free and have some great functions for this purpose like solidify, which takes all the geometry and create just the "visible" part as the one solid object, then there is possibility to hollow it to make it like vase with certain wall thickness.

3) Voxel remesh - after blender introduced voxel remesh I stopped using meshmixer. You just join the object in blender to be one and then use voxel remesh which "bake" the object into one with no internal geometry.

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Two things: 1) try duplicating the object, scaling it down, and then performing a boolean operation with the second object. 2) Use the solidify modifier and apply. BONUS: Duplicate the faces in edit mode, and scale them down a tiny bit.

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I thank you for your time and effort thinking along with me here, really appreciate it.

I've literally tried just about everything once again, hours and hours without any luck.

I have Blender software, keycreator, Meshmixer and Simplify3D.

The operation that got me closest was the remesh option but it is far from a real solution as it deforms the object and is very resource intensive.

There has to be a way to just create a shell of the complex geometry in Blender or any other software.

What I tried as well was exporting stl in Blender and import it into Keycreator, it creates a perfect shell but the software doesn't allow for any further editing.

The meshmixer software also creates a deformed solid and my computer crashes just like in Blender when I try a higher resolution.

enter image description here

https://we.tl/t-S9MrEGc9Cf

Above is an object I want to print without internal geometry, just the shell.

I am really curious what wizard can figure out what operations need to be performed to make it happen, without very resource intensive processes because it really shouldn't be that hard.

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  • $\begingroup$ Please consider editing your question to add these instead of posting answers that don't really answer your question. There should be an edit button under the question. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 7, 2020 at 10:31
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UPDATE: The problem isn't separating the outer shell from the interior but disconnecting it.

The outer shell is connected to the internals, so when I use the method of selecting what's visible and delete, the model breaks down.

We're looking for some way to break up the geometry into pieces allowing for the selection of the shell > inverse select > delete faces edges and vertices and keep the outer shell intact.

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I stumbled on this while trying to improve my printing efficiency. I am using ChituBOX and found out that I can actually do the hollow 3-D grid from there, so this might be an option if you want to (or need to) use something outside of Blender for printing.

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