Hi I’m a new Rhino user having some fun designing my first guitar whilst I save up for a hobby CNC. I can’t help but notice I have no STL export option. What’s going on here?
Also, I have uploaded my file here. Could somebody please take a quick look at the Body layer and tell me why I’m having such trouble making it a valid object? I can’t seem the get the edges closed no matter what. I’ve been working carefully but there still seem to be innacuracies occuring. This Body looks fine in Render etc but there are constant invalid parts popping up. I fix them and then something is wrong elsewhere…
Tom, I’ve had a quick look at your file and the first thing that strikes me is the complexity of your geometry. My advice would be to simplify your curves using rebuild, you should aim for the fewest number of control points that will describe the shape you want, this will simplify the resultant surfaces. Simple surfaces give you better results in my experience.
For example, the top surface of your guitar is in three pieces and is very controlpoint dense. I can’t see exactly what shape you want but I’m sure it could be modelled in one piece, perhaps two if you use symmetry. Aim to make your surfaces as clean and simple as you can.
Alan - Indeed - are you meaning to say I should model it that way too? Start from a rectangle and cut the V out of it? Make it capped and then ‘route’ the pickups rather than building them into the inside first and then trying to cap it?
Thanks MisterB. This project has been a huge experiment and learning experience in all areas , I do intend to try a more simple rebuild. The top surface being so split up was the result of trimming issues I was having that I’ve been meaning to ask about. For example I would create a large rectangle surface across the whole top from the bottom points of the ‘V’ and then try and trim away the outside areas using the edges of the body, and then the pickup routes using the edges of them which I had already made. It either straight up didn’t work (even when I extruded the edges up through the surface) or would trim away the entire surface. Some areas I’ve had no problem, I’ve yet to find a pattern. That’s why parts of this were capped in smaller manageable areas that seemed to work. Definitely not ideal. As you can tell I’m still very new!
Any ideas as to the lack of STL in my export selection menu? I only realised by chance but it’s bugging me. I know I don’t need that feature yet
Possibly Carter - I find it odd there are no results for this issue on google. My copy is legitimate and updated. Educational version but that is described as an identical product. For such a core feature to be missing is very odd…
I was trying export selection as, which is what I saw in tutorials. I thought maybe it wasn’t there because my object was invalid, but I tried it with some basic cube etc too. No luck!
Tom, the problems with trimming you describe are almost certainly due to there not being a complete intersection between the surfaces. The method I use if I have problems with a trim failing is to use surface intersection to generate curves, then try to join the curves along the trim boundary. If you have a gaps, and they only have to be tiny, you won’t get a closed curve. If this is the case then you know you don’t have a contiguous boundary and the trim will fail. Others may have a better method but this works for me.
Again, I would reiterate the importance of clean, simple geometry. It took me years before I learned the importance of this; be aware of your file tolerance and use rebuild to simplify curves. If you aim for that you won’t have so many problems with operations failings. Good luck.
Thanks for the tip! I have begun remodelling the body and may have discovered another big explanation. My split commands seem to fail if part of an even distant area is unjoined.Â
E.g starting with a blank body block solid and splitting away an arm contour on top and a belly carve on the bottom -if I forget to join the arm contour surface to make the body one solid again, the rear belly cut wont trim, no matter that it’s not in contact. I can’t see why but it would explain a lot given how bitty my original is!
I’m a new Rhino user having some fun designing my first guitar whilst I save up for a hobby CNC. I can’t help but notice I have no STL export option. What’s going on here?
