I am currently working on a site model that I am going to 3D print, and I am having a lot of trouble boolean unioning the topo layers together. Either the layers union properly but become an open polysurface (because of non-manifold edges I think) or they don’t union at all. On the layers which are shown in cyan I have identified non-manifold/naked edges using the show edge command, then tried using extract surface, then exploding the polysurface and rejoining all of the surfaces to eliminate non-manifold edges, which works but is very time consuming, and also leaves very small naked edges which are very difficult to patch. I have then tried using the RemoveAllNakedMicroEdges command, which removes some but not all of the super small naked edges, and the ones that it leaves are so small I can’t figure out how to fix them. I’m wondering if anyone has some suggestions on how to union all of this topo together in a quicker and less tedious way.
I would also love suggestions about how to build the topo layers better in the future so that I can union them more easily, you can sort of see the way I constructed each layer off to the side by taking the contour lines, joining them to a site border rectangle and then extruding each one.
The file is pretty large so I put it in google drive, I’m pretty sure I made it so anyone with the link can edit but lmk if it doesnt work.
I realize that’s a lot of info, my main issue is that once I have joined all of the surfaces together, I still end up with these tiny little naked edges that seem like they are inside the surface. I have tried using RemoveAllNakedMicroEdges as I mentioned but it doesn’t get these ones.
for 3D printing you do not need one single closed polysurface. if you have multiple overlapping polysurfaces, most (nearly all) slicers will successfully slice the model as if it was one single closed polysurface.
in your case, it would be easiest to extrude each contour to the next contour, maybe overlap by 1/8" to be sure it will slice. this will avoid annoying boolean issues between contours as you are not unioning the extruded contours together.
if the 2D contour curves themselves are self intersecting you will need to remove the self intersections with this method:
select the contour curve(s) at a certain level
_curveboolean (toggle delete all = true)
click inside the contour curve(s)
complete command
select the same contour curve(s) again
_curveboolean (toggle delete all = true)
click outside the contour curve(s)
complete command
this guarantees all self-intersections are removed from both sides of the curve
