Hi guys,
I build some complex shapes in rhino and wanna join them together. However, rhino always says ‘boolean failed’ when I want to union them. Do anyone know how to join them together? Thanks a lot!
The rhino file is attached.
Sincerely,
Colin
BooleanUnion Failed.3dm (1.6 MB)
I’ve found that Rhino often fails when surfaces are very close to each other, like the ends on those uh… balloon helicopter wings? 
I could unify them almost all the way if I did them 1 on 1 to groups and then joined the groups. I ended up with two groups per arm. At least a bit on the way.
BooleanUnion Failed_2.3dm (411.8 KB)
And here are they all (well at least all in one arm) joined. I cheated though, move one bunch a tiny tiny distance inwards.
BooleanUnion Failed_3.3dm (446.2 KB)
yeh bro, might be software issues lol
It’s rarely software issues… Have a look at the attached file, I’ve only done it quickly so there may be some errors. It’s down to the proximity of your geometry - you’re asking it to work with something which is incorrect and it doesn’t guess (I don’t think)
As it’s mirrored you can split it and see the interior… colour code the parts so you ca see what’s what.
explode the parts and start to trim in pairs to get a cleaner group of surfaces.
Move parts with the gumball in increments - so in this instance it’s in increments of 5 each time - this means you can move things absolute without having to snap etc.
if there comes a point where you can’t trim, have a spin around and try to work out why it might be creating an error
use the intersect command with the smaller groups and it’ll show you where they don’t cross.
Hide all the surfaces and then tidy up the curves from the interface command - trim and create a closed curve and then use this to trim the other groups.
BooleanUnion_Failed_2DCube.3dm (1.4 MB)
Start back at the beginning but break it down into 1/12 to create a clean surface and then use polar array
BooleanUnion_Failed_2DCube_REV_A.3dm (2.8 MB)