How to convert several triangular regions into 3D solid?

[yeti]

Hello all,

 

This is my first post, and essentially my first go at 3D in AutoCAD.

 

I was given a model of several mound shapes, 3 of which are 3D solids, but the fourth is a collection of triangular regions. The mound is a semi-organic shape, not a simple rectilinear box or something that I can EXTRUDE to where I want it.

 

I am looking for a way to unify all the region facets together as a 3D solid so that I can slice them into smaller chunks for our production drawings.

 

So far, I have been able to CONVTOSURFACE them into one big surface, but cannot CONVTOSOLID from there.

 

I can convert it to a mesh, but still cannot convert that into a solid for slicing.

 

I have seen mention of the m2s.lsp lisp routine, but that seems to make a thin skin (something like extruding each facet)

 

What can I do? Please, O all-knowing CAD gurus, you are my only hope!

 

Sincerely,

At Wit's End

[JD Mather]

So far, I have been able to CONVTOSURFACE them into one big surface

 

Sounds like Slice with Surface option or maybe Thicken.

 

Can you attach the surface here?

[yeti]

I would like to attach the file, but I cannot get it below the 250KB file size limit. The smallest I can get it to is 353KB...

 

Arrgh!

[ReMark]

Can the file be broken up in some manner?

[yeti]

I don't think so... it's one "mound" made up of about 660 pieces. I suppose I could chop it up into multiple files, but that's more work for anyone else to put it back together again to look at it.

 

/sigh

[CarlB]

Don't know if the "face to solid" lisp will do any better than the "mesh to solid" -if you do have 3d faces...

 

www.accustudio.com/data/marketplace/free/F2S.lsp

 

[JD Mather]

I would like to attach the file, but I cannot get it below the 250KB file size limit. The smallest I can get it to is 353KB...

 

Shademode 2d

File Save As (make sure you do Save As)

Go to Windows Explorer

Right click on the filename and select Send to Compressed (zipped) Folder

What is the size of the resulting *.zip file?

[yeti]

Thanks JD, I'm so spun about this that I completely forgot about zipping. Or, rather, I didn't think a .zip would garner that much space!

 

I'm attaching the 245KB .zip for the individual regions version of the model.

 

Thanks again for your help!

sc9 mound4b.zip

[JD Mather]

What is your definition of "several"? I was able to get the repaired model to a solid, but there were "several" missing surfaces. The solid ended up being over 1Meg zipped, too large to attach here.

[yeti]

My apologies!

 

The "several" I mentioned in my first post was in relation the the number of mounds in the scene I am working on. The mound I attached has 660 facets. In other versions of the mound (water-tight surfaces where I had filled in the missing bits) the drawing ended up being around 1.3MB as well. In order to get the drawing to you I had to use the simplest version I had: the 660 regions.

 

Might you be able to tell me how you got to where you did, in lieu of an attached file?

 

Again, my apologies, and my thanks!

[JD Mather]

Might you be able to tell me how you got to where you did, in lieu of an attached file?

 

Well, I used a modern 3D CAD program, not AutoCAD - so it looks like I won't be of much help since I can't attach the results here.

[yeti]

Ah, more's the pity. Thanks for your help. Hopefully someone with a woefully dated CAD program (like AutoCAD 2010) can give me some pointers.

[ReMark]

yeti: Do you know anyone who is using Inventor? You're not a student by any chance are you?