Scale/resize but keep material thickness

Rhino Rhino for Mac
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1

I’ve got a ton of these boxes to resize, wall features for interiors, all different sizes, they are basically 15mm thickness birch faced plywood boxes, so i need to keep the material thickness to 15mm but keep changing the overall dimensions of the boxes, scale1d and boxedit changed the thickness of the material, I ended up using solidpton, is there any easier or quicker way to do this ?

Screen Shot 2017-03-11 at 15.38.44.png1998×1268 109 KB

2

Create them as boxes, use PointsOn to resize as required, then use Shell on them to remove the front face and give the walls thickness.
That is if you don’t need them to have the nice color scheme you show in your picture…

Max.

3

thanks Max, the colours in the screenshot are just the layers, red=back, grey=main box, green= plywood end grain, I was trying for a while different ways to resize without changing material thickness, it just seems like what should be a pretty simple task takes longer than expected :unamused:

4

Which is so often the case…
btw, I meant boxes as simple shape polysurfaces, i.e. the Box command.

Max.

5

I played a bit with this. If you wish to maintain the layer colours as you have shown, try this:

  • Create one box, made up out of single surfaces on different layers, as you probably already did.
  • Group all surfaces into one object, this will make copying easier.
  • Copy the group.
  • Set PointsOn for the copied group, note that the individual control points of each surface will light up.
  • In Front view, use a selection window to select the points of a side or top panel you wish to move and move them over the required distance. Don’t drag the points, that will be likely to get things skewed. Use the Move command instead.
    Max.
    2017-03-12 09.55.15.png1114×891 93.8 KB

Edit: I am not sure how you used the SolidPtOn command, so this method may or may not be quicker than yours…

1 Like
6

I might use Sub-object selection of the sides for this , coupled with either the Move command or the Gumball (especially if the boxes are axis-aligned). Cmd(Mac)/Ctrl(Windows)+Shift to sub-select edges or faces, you can either pick or window select.

Quickie video - This is Windows, but Mac should behave the same. Note that the wall thickness does not change, but the thickness dimension number which I pulled to the outside does not move with the dimension lines (minor bug/limitation).

–Mitch

1 Like
7

thanks Mitch, yes using sub-object selection would work too, similar time wise to using SolidPtOn

8

its a similar method Max, appreciate the input, cheers :slight_smile:

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Using sub-object selection and SolidPtOn works for this, but it would still be a little more efficient if there was an option to restrain the material thickness using scale1d, this would enable you to get the overall dimensions accurately and quickly, As well as some quick visuals (accuracy not that essential for these) I also need some working drawings and cutting lists etc, so this is why being able to input overall sizes quickly would be of benefit :slight_smile:

10

For boxes like this you could easily build them parametrically with Grasshopper. Then it would just be a question of manipulating sliders to the size you want.

–Mitch

2 Likes
11

yes maybe I should finally make some time to learn a little GrassHopper :blush:

12

it would be strongly argued against that you are now not actually scaling the object if you called whilst retaining the wall thickness. I think sub object selection is perfect for this IMHO