From surface to solid. Help needed!

[AndarionCG]

Hello!

I began with this project a week ago, i am new to freecad, but i did used autocad, pro/engineer before. Now, i know i could do this stuff over there, but i don't use windows anymore, and that is for a while already. I'm using ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and today i updated freecad to daily build version.
I'm into freecad for a week, or two, i pretty musch understand the concept on how freecad works, but still there's tone of stuff to learn.
Right now, i have one problem. And it would be important to me to figure this out, because the rest of the project will have a lot of similar situation.
What i need is to create a solid out of the surfaces. I tried shape builder, it didn't worked. In one moment i tried boolean, it did worked for two surfaces, but it just not the way to go, for some reason surface resolution become downgraded.
It's quite simple need, but for now nothing works.
I saw almost every tutorial, but non of them explains what i need, i tried defferent solutions, but, non of them can do organic surface like bspline can. But if anyone know some good tutorial, please, add link toward the light!

One new problem i noticed after update, when i change to draft workbench, i can't see tools, to be precise, without bspline i'm in pretty big trouble.

I atached .fcstd file below.

[NormandC]

Hello AndarionCG,

I'm using ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and today i updated freecad to daily build version.

The preferred way of communicating your FreeCAD info is explained in the READ FIRST BEFORE ASKING FOR HELP!!! topic... It just below the "NEWTOPIC" button, didn't you notice it?

One new problem i noticed after update, when i change to draft workbench, i can't see tools, to be precise, without bspline i'm in pretty big trouble.

Sorry, that's something I need to fix. For now, you have to manually install the python-pyside package from the Ubuntu repositories to fix it. Just type the package name in the Software Center search box, or in a terminal

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install python-pyside

I will have a look at your model later, but hopefully another forum egular will do it before me.

[NormandC]

Sorry, I'm not having more luck than you. When trying to create a shell with ShapeBuilder, I keep getting the error "Shape is not a Shell". I tried leaving out faces (a shell doesn't need to be closed unless you want to convert it to solid later on) but no face combination would work.

OS: Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS
Platform: 64-bit
Version: 0.14.3124 (Git)
Branch: master
Hash: 4d918d1f8f7d4ebcaf78acc50de7a9b39a67efde
Python version: 2.7.3
Qt version: 4.8.1
Coin version: 3.1.3
SoQt version: 1.5.0
OCC version: 6.5.0

[AndarionCG]

Thanks, normandc! My apology about the info, i did saw topic you mentioned, i guess i missed that to add, i''m getting familiar with this forum, i regestered just few days ago.
I still didn't find any solution, and i must figure this out. I think i just have to set things in right order, from bsplines and surfaces to solid. I'm sure i missing something, since i can't get right results, and considering that i'm quite knew to freecad.

FC_info:
OS: Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS
Platform: 64-bit
Version: 0.14.3139 (Git)
Branch: master
Hash: d46fcf08b1ebd280f1828f94d7f637a22a39e5dd
Python version: 2.7.3
Qt version: 4.8.1
Coin version: 3.1.3
SoQt version: 1.5.0
OCC version: 6.5.0

[NormandC]

Well I haven't had much experience working with surfaces then converting them to solid, some other forum members may have more useful input!

[bejant]

I can say that when opening the model both in v0.14.2370 and again with

OS: Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS
Platform: 32-bit
Version: 0.14.3124 (Git)
Branch: master
Hash: 4d918d1f8f7d4ebcaf78acc50de7a9b39a67efde
Python version: 2.7.3
Qt version: 4.8.1
Coin version: 3.1.3
SoQt version: 1.5.0
OCC version: 6.5.0

I get two error messages Report window both stating "The mesh data has some defects".

[NormandC]

I get two error messages Report window both stating "The mesh data has some defects".

There are two mesh objects in the file that AndarionCG is attempting to remodel into a solid. I don't think this error is relevant to the problem at hand.

Toggling their visibility reveals a partial jet fuselage and a cockpit canopy. This is a very cool project to do in FreeCAD, I hope you can get around your current problem and post about your model later on in the new Users Showcase forum!

[bejant]

After looking at your model the 2 mesh objects are VF-1a (on which nothing depends) and VF-1a_1 (on which many things depend).

I ran the Evaluate and Repair Mesh on mesh VF-1a_1 and the results are:
38 folds on surface (which must be repaired first);
Duplicated points;
19 non-manifolds;
and self intersections.

After the Analyze and Repair was done, the result is this, which is probably not what you want:

20140216a_VF_test_02_Mesh_Repair.jpg (29.9 KiB) Viewed 10540 times

So I think that mesh VF-1a_1 needs to be fixed before trying to make any solids out of faces made from the mesh.
But I also have to say that I'm not accustomed to working with meshes...

[NormandC]

bejant, the meshes are not being converted to solid, but only used as reference to build a solid from scratch. Which is why this error is irrelevant.

AndarionCG, I noticed that you created many Section sketches of the fuselage in your "Sections" group. Did you try using the Part Loft tool?

I used the sketches to produce a couple of lofts, this will be a trial and error process because you can get unwanted results if your sections are not "judiciously" placed. I could not use all of them as FreeCAD would throw me an error ("BRepFill_CompatibleWires::SameNumberByACR failed"). But you may have more success than building faces and trying to join them.

The loft tool also accepts BSplines.

[AndarionCG]

bejant, thanks! I was on that issue while i was learning about meshes, and how freecad handles them, but the only thing i can do with meshes is to use them as guides or referneces.
I tried to convert mesh to solid, but what i get out of that is non parametric defined object, and i can't create valid drawing for printing. So i gave up from that solution.

normandc, i tried the same thnig right form the start, but i needed more control, so i left those sketches just in case. All those sketches, if i figure out how to use them, i'll include in drawing. But for now i find that bsplines give the only valid result, there are lines or edges that this model needs to keep, or to be visible, now this is design issue, and in other words, design is my bigest problem here.

This project is pretty large, it's going to be my final graduation project, so i might have presentation to show! This project is somethig i must do, and i think there will be a lot of material that freecad users would like to see.

Now, this might be useful a bit, what i was trying for a while, is to find situations when this problem occurs.
When i create two flat surfaces, same princip, or method, of creation, there is absolutely no trouble to make shell form those faces, and from shell to create a solid. No errors, work perfectly.
But when i try the same method on two bumpy surfaces, created with bsplines, i can't convert those surfaces to shell.
Now i'm trying to see if those surfaces need some additional editing to get them to work. This is the thing that i'm actually trying to solve.

* * *
Just to mention this, english is not my native language, so, if you find some mistake, like grammar, it's bocause of that, i'm still learning.