Can't make things solid

[Rog]

My 'union' doesnt seem to work. I've selected all the different objects and they dont form a solid. I did a test on another drawing and it works fine. What could be different on this one? Thanks.

 

RD

[Cad64]

Are all of your objects Solids?

Are all of your Solids touching/intersecting? If so, are they all touching/intersecting cleanly? Autocad doesn't like funky transitions.

[Rog]

Are all of your objects Solids?

Are all of your Solids touching/intersecting? If so, are they all touching/intersecting cleanly? Autocad doesn't like funky transitions.

 

Would you be kind enough to expand on that. Briefly I've constructed a box with windows and a doorway. The windows and doorway have depth, ie a 'z' dimension. Whatever I select either the parts of an individual window or all the windows or even the whole thing. Rightclicking after selection just returns to the original state. ie, nothing joined.

 

I'd be interested to know how I can check that everything is touching/intersecting. Many thanks

 

RD

[shift1313]

to make a solid your sketch needs to be a closed polyline. If you draw 4 lines and make a rectangle this will not be a closed polyline, even if all the corners touch. If you use the box command or rectangle command or any of the other preloaded object these will be closed polylines in 2d or 3d solids.

 

If you have a closed polyline 2d and use the EXTRUDE command this will create a 3d solid.

 

The thickness box if you go to properties will create a "sheel" or walls. Here is an example. I used the rectangle command to create a closed polyline rectangle, the one on the left i used the EXTRUDE command, the one on the right i selected, right-click, properties and changed the thickness. In 2d view you see they look identical, but if you shade them you see the right hand one is just a shell and not a solid. If you try to use any of the solid editing commands like union, subtract, intersect etc you will get an error because "no solid is selected"

 

[spittle]

Sometimes Autocad won't union things even when they are all solids. It's crap! Well it has it's uses, but it isn't the best compared to other 3d modelling packages IMO.

[shift1313]

its true Acad does not like Null solids. If you try to create something using poor modeling it will delete both solids. This is not necessarily a problem with autocad though.

 

I would agree there are better packages out there. I really enjoy modeling in UGS NX5, but i use different software for different applications. I have ACAD 05-06-07-09, inventor 10/11 pro, Mech Desktop, UGS nx5, Mastercam, and as of today the new Solidworks