Merging a lot of solids

Grasshopper
1

Hello everybody!

So after an intense period of learning, I managed to design a trippy ashtray! I created it in Grasshopper, baked it and that did a few “manual” adaptations in Rhino. Each one of these is a separate Solid. How could I close this all up in one single solid that is “filled” and not hollowed out? I tried to do a “Solid Union” on these cubes but I get a “Boolean Union is set empty” error.

I imagine that maybe there could be gaps between the cubes so that’s why it is not working? But also I imagine I first need to create a base in the shape of the bottom row.

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2

Impossible to see details. Could be a problem with non-manifold edges.

I think the first thing I would try is scale every cube by a tiny factor, let’s say 1.001 and try to merge everything then

3

I think to make that a solid with breps(or even meshes) will be a huge hustle.
Why do you ant to solidify it? For 3d-print?

1 Like
4

Yeah the plan is to 3D print it!

Is this step even necessary for 3D printing?

5

Try looking into Marching cubes.

You would lose the ‘voxel’ look though. I’m not sure if that’s something you aimed for, or just a limitation of how you modeled it.

6

some printers dont care if its joined(booled)together.
general thoughts:
-you may think of the resolution of the printer
-the wall thickness(some parts look thin, cause the cubes arent touching much)
-the material(it may become hot when putting the cigarette)

7

Thanks for the inputs! I am gonna try to print it without modifications to see what comes out. Fingers crossed!

And yeah, the plan is to silicon mold it afterward and then cast it in concrete, so the cigarette heat won’t be a problem :smiley:

8

Hi, if you want it only for 3d-print, MeshMixer from Autodesk can be another option you should take a look.
This processes meshes containing errors (yours is not errors though) through voxels and convert it to a single solid.

------tutorial--------
Import an .stl, Edit->Make Solid (try raising all the options to the highest if you are not sure about the options)

9

Thank you! I will give it a look