Leaky Boolean Operations in Rhino 4.x

[willnewton]

I use Rhino 5 and have enough experience to know that it is does not create Boolean miracles. You have to help it out sometimes. I have found 95% of the errors are from my modeling practice, not faults in Rhino.

On some of the others, I find extracting surfaces that have mating faces and using the Join command instead of Boolean will get a lot of un-Booleanable stuff to work.

Next would be extracting problem surfaces and using sweep 1 or sweep 2 rails to remake them. Or Extracting surfaces and use Cap planar holes or Surface from planar curves. These commands will not work if your model is not built correctly, so they act as a check on you modeling.

Also, use the Analyze-> Show naked edges->Join naked edges to check your work and also check the Do Not allow open objects box under Export Selected.

In your case, this piece looks symmetrical, simply Wirecut from the Top view and mirror the good half. Don't spend a lot of time trying to figure out why it won't make a specific area water tight. Instead, find a way Rhino will make it work. Sometimes you have to step back to work with the surfaces instead of solids, sometimes even back to the lines.

I get plenty of failed Booleans and naked edges and every time I find a better way to model my subject and get the job done. If it takes longer than a couple of minutes to fix, I am yanking out surfaces and remodeling problem areas, mirroring good areas, adding in geometry that make things work.

Also a fan of Nettfabb's online repair tool. It is free and has fixed most anything I send it. I will use that to go ahead and get my model ready and printing while I am troubleshooting my main file, so no further time is wasted waiting.

Also, S3D v3 will sometimes create leaks where none exist in files that are modeled well and verified watertight and exported from Rhino, which is maddening. But running it through Nettfabb will make it happy for some reason.

[jimc]

actually pyro sent me a model he was having trouble with. i loaded it into rhino 5 and joined all the parts and they went together perfectly. no flaws. when i exported to stl, again no flaws as it should be. brought it into net fab for analysis and that said no flaws. so....i think its just the fact that he has missed out on 8 years worth of bug fixes and improvements.

[Jules]

actually pyro sent me a model he was having trouble with. i loaded it into rhino 5 and joined all the parts and they went together perfectly. no flaws. when i exported to stl, again no flaws as it should be. brought it into net fab for analysis and that said no flaws. so....i think its just the fact that he has missed out on 8 years worth of bug fixes and improvements.

That most recent Rhino update caught that unfound error in the tissue box cover that was slicing so funny in S3d v3, so I'm happy. Now if only i could figure out how to do a three way fillet at a corner i'd be tickled pink!

[willnewton]

Pyro or anyone reading this, if you have a few bucks to spare, spend $25 for a month of training if you haven't already. 100% best return on investment EVER.

http://www.infiniteskills.com/rhino/

Or free
https://vimeo.com/rhino