Voronoi 3D Cylinder Multipipe to single closed polysurface

[Prerana]

Hello everyone!
I am new to Rhino and am working on making a voronoi 3D cylinder which has voronoi structures not just on the surface but also in the volume of the cylinder. I referred to many forums and examples available online and was able to make one using the multipipe command.
The issue is, there are a lot of duplicates which are not closing the model and I am unable to figure out how to make into a single closed polysurface so that I can use it as a solid and perform Boolean Operations on it as my target is to export the desired model to run simulations.

Also, how to I deal with the part outside the cylinder volume and if I have to increase the count of the input for Pop3D command, is there a restriction on doing so for the value?

Your guidance on this will be of great help as I have a very tight time constraint as well.

Thanks in advance!

[jessesn (Jessesn Chen)]

Could you share this .gh file?

[Prerana]

voronoi cylinder model.gh (15.4 KB)
Here’s the grasshopper file, sorry I forgot attaching it with the previous message.

[jessesn (Jessesn Chen)]

@Prerana

Also, how to I deal with the part outside the cylinder volume and if I have to increase the count of the input for Pop3D command, is there a restriction on doing so for the value?

Slight offset the cylinder a bit more to create the 3d points, which can solve this issue,

voronoi cylinder model.gh (9.2 KB)

[Prerana]

Thank you so much for the reply Jessesn!
I did check your file, but I am trying to maintain the pores as displayed in the first image but instead of it being a “pipe” with open/naked edges, I am trying to make it as a single subd solid.
can you suggest how I can achieve it?

I am trying to model a porous cylinder as shown in the reference images as I am working with metal foams for my research.

[jessesn (Jessesn Chen)]

@Prerana

I did check your file, but I am trying to maintain the pores as displayed in the first image but instead of it being a “pipe” with open/naked edges, I am trying to make it as a single subd solid.
can you suggest how I can achieve it?

Pls give it a try with Dendro,

Dendro.gh (10.9 KB)

[martinsiegrist]

Please don’t create two topics for the same problem

Merging 3D Voronoi Network into one unified object

I made the cylinder like this so far, but as far as I believe, due to the presence of a lot of duplicates/open edges, I am unable to convert it into a single closed polysurface as I intention is to make a “solid” model and perform boolean operations with other solids and export it for simulations [rhino window] [Grasshopper window]

[Prerana]

Thank you so much Jessesn!
I am able to make the model as a solid now.
When I try baking it, it is still staying the same. Is there anything that I have to learn about when using Dendro?
Its just that I made a solid cylinder around this model in rhino and tried doing BooleanDifference and I am unable to select the voronoi cylinder to subtract it from the solid cylinder.

[Prerana]

Sorry, didn’t realize I made a topic prior to this as I was trying to figure this issue out. I will make sure I don’t do this again.
Thanks!

[jessesn (Jessesn Chen)]

@Prerana

When I try baking it, it is still staying the same. Is there anything that I have to learn about when using Dendro?

You can convert it to mesh via VolumeToMesh and than bake it to Rhino

[Prerana]

Thank you very much Jessesn!
You have clarified my doubts very clearly for me.
I used the Volume to Mesh and also converted it to NURBS after baking.
I was able to get a single closed polysurface as displayed in the attached images.

My doubt now is, when I exported this as an .igs file (IGES file), I am able to create the file as expected but unable to use it in ANSYS, the software in which I anticipate to work on using this geometry for simulations.

Is there any way that I can export the geometry as a solid without this issue persisting?
Thank you for bearing with my questions and helping me out!

[jessesn (Jessesn Chen)]

@Prerana

My doubt now is, when I exported this as an .igs file (IGES file), I am able to create the file as expected but unable to use it in ANSYS, the software in which I anticipate to work on using this geometry for simulations.

You can achieve it with STL file. Save your Rhino file as a STL file and then import it to Ansys.

STL import - Simulation object

[Prerana]

Thank you very much Jessesn!

Best regards,
Prerana

[Prerana]

Hey Jessesn!
Hope you are doing well.
I came up with a new doubt regarding mesh repair for the same model.

Also, please let me know if posting the query in this very same thread is okay or else I will create a new one if needed.

The query:
Since I am facing issues to work on my simulations in ANSYS due to the geometry being very complex when imported into the ANSYS software, I was considering to simplify the mesh before exporting from rhino to address this issue.

Firstly, I ran the ‘ReduceMesh’ command and was able to reduce the number of faces from 2,640,061 to 199,258 (92%)

Then, I ran the ‘MeshRepair’ command and selected ‘RebuildMesh’ option in the window and came up with the following message in the mesh repair window

The message after rebuilding mesh in mesh repair window:
Number of Naked Edges = 0
(2) Non-manifold edges added
(3) Duplicate faces added
(33) Disjoint pieces removed

—Check Mesh Report—
This is a bad mesh.

Here is what is wrong with this mesh:
Mesh has 6 non manifold edges.
Mesh has 3 duplicate faces.
Skipping face direction check because of positive non manifold edge count.
Mesh has 21 pairs of faces that intersect each other.
This can cause problems if you’re doing mesh boolean operations with it.

Important things to consider with this mesh:
Mesh has 35 faces where the face normal differs substantially from the vertex normals.
Although this does not necessarily mean that the mesh is bad,
these normals can cause problems if the ultimate goal is for rendering or boolean purposes.

General information about this mesh:
Mesh does not have any degenerate faces.
Mesh does not have any n-gons.
Mesh does not have any extremely short edges.
Mesh does not have any naked edges.
Mesh has 4 disjoint pieces.
Mesh does not have any unused vertices.

Object name: (not named)
Layer name: Default
Render Material:
source = from layer
index = -1

Geometry:
Valid mesh.
Closed double precision polygon mesh: 98196 vertices, 194490 faces with normals
Bounding box: (-6.11183,-3.74623,-0.316747) to (4.52897,6.89159,120.314)

Requested guidance:
I need guidance on proceeding further with repairing the mesh because I tried working around with the mesh repair tools and I am unable to fix the issues instead creating more errors.

The final target is to export it as a single “watertight” mesh.

Thanks in advance!

[Prerana]

Hey, I was able to repair the mesh but now when the mesh is selected, it is shown as an open mesh. Not sure how to interpret this into a single “watertight” mesh because when I exported, it is not a single solid as expected.