This is looking very promising, Steven. Hope you'll find the time to expand the toolset!
I'll be happy to test. And in case you need inspiration: http://pages.citebite.com/n2g3k8p3p1pak :-) On Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 3:19 PM, Chris Marshall <[email protected]>wrote: > Thanks Steven, > Well I'm going to try getting some 3d prints made and will try both > methods. Your way is quickest, but the files are big if I try and keep > sharper detail. The alternative which I now have working is to break the > 3000 cube model into its individual pieces using Joeys plugin, then Boolean > them all back together using a script supplied by Peter B. This is a much > slower method when dealing with so many cubes, but it works and generates > files that are much smaller. > Thanks again for your input. > > > > > On 28 November 2013 19:20, Steven Caron <[email protected]> wrote: > >> if you need those perfect edges from the original cube then booleans will >> probably be your best bet. otherwise using my custom ice nodes you can >> decrease the voxel size a lot (increasing total voxels) and use the >> 'adaptivity' parameter on the volume to mesh node to reduce the density to >> something manageable. >> >> >> On Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 5:29 AM, Chris Marshall < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Thanks Peter, much appreciated. I shall give it a go and report back. >>> Cheers >>> >>> >>> >>> On 28 November 2013 12:49, <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> as matt said, first separate each polygon island. >>>> there are some scripts out there that do this, but worst case: select >>>> with polygon island filter, then extract and so on. >>>> >>>> then boolean all of them one at a time - in the top right of the image >>>> I attached, was the line of vbscript I used for this: >>>> >>>> for i = 1 to 71 >>>> ApplyGenOp “BooleanGenUnion”, , “polymsh” & i – 1 & “;cube” & i, 3, >>>> siPersistentOperation, siKeepGenOpInputs >>>> next >>>> >>>> It expects there to be a series of objects named cube1, cube2,... >>>> (select all your extracted meshes, alt+enter for a multippg and rename them >>>> – they should now have sequential names) and a series of objects polymsh0, >>>> polymsh1,... which are the results of each boolean. >>>> it’s not very smart for naming, so create the first boolean by hand, >>>> duplicate it and name it polymsh0. >>>> Now it should find all subsequent booleans which will be named >>>> polymsh1,polymsh2 and so on - that get created by the script. >>>> >>>> it runs a few seconds and the very last polymsh should be the result of >>>> all booleans, *if nothing went wrong*. >>>> >>>> If it has only part of the objects, that’s because somewhere along the >>>> line a boolean didn’t work – and resulted in an empty mesh. So find the >>>> last one before the empty one, and boolean them by hand. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> *From:* Chris Marshall <[email protected]> >>>> *Sent:* Thursday, November 28, 2013 12:30 PM >>>> *To:* [email protected] >>>> *Subject:* Re: skin lots of cubes >>>> >>>> OK I accept that, it's not ideal but it's a solution. I'd rather get >>>> the result you have with the multiple booleans / hard edges, which is what >>>> I was after, but how are you doing it? >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On 28 November 2013 11:26, <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>>> I’m kind of with Matt on this. >>>>> If it’s simple cubes and no rounded corners you’re after, booleans >>>>> would do. >>>>> >>>>> see the attached, the middle one is a scripted boolean between 70 >>>>> cubes. >>>>> Nothing so fancy as what Matt suggests – just a boolean between two >>>>> cubes, then a boolean between the result and a third cube and so on. >>>>> >>>>> I was surprised to see that you can get something acceptable with >>>>> rounded corners even, depending on how demanding you are. >>>>> the one on top has the rounded corners shader - which unfortunately >>>>> only considers the convex angles. >>>>> the one below has a rounded bevel on all edges – so concavities are >>>>> treated as well – but there are some nasty spikes. >>>>> >>>>> Booleans generate less than ideal topologies for working with – doing >>>>> smooth deformations on top of all of this will be troublesome. >>>>> >>>>> *From:* Matt Lind <[email protected]> >>>>> *Sent:* Wednesday, November 27, 2013 7:25 PM >>>>> *To:* [email protected] >>>>> *Subject:* RE: skin lots of cubes >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Couldn’t you separate by polygon island, Boolean, then re-merge? >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> That much could be scripted without too much trouble as you could do a >>>>> distance search between cubes to know which cubes should be Booleaned with >>>>> each other. You could script it to Boolean while merged, but that would >>>>> require a little more work in the form of the algorithm. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Matt >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> *From:* [email protected] [mailto: >>>>> [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Chris Marshall >>>>> *Sent:* Wednesday, November 27, 2013 7:01 AM >>>>> *To:* [email protected] >>>>> *Subject:* skin lots of cubes >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Hi All, >>>>> >>>>> After managing to get a frozen poly mesh from hundreds of ICE cubes, >>>>> what I need to do now is perform something like a boolean union on them >>>>> all >>>>> (though they are a single merged polygon), a bit like polygonizer but >>>>> without the round corners. Any tools out there that could do that? >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Thanks >>>>> >>>>> Chris >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> >>>> Chris Marshall >>>> Mint Motion Limited >>>> 029 20 37 27 57 >>>> 07730 533 115 >>>> www.mintmotion.co.uk >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> >>> Chris Marshall >>> Mint Motion Limited >>> 029 20 37 27 57 >>> 07730 533 115 >>> www.mintmotion.co.uk >>> >>> >> > > > -- > > Chris Marshall > Mint Motion Limited > 029 20 37 27 57 > 07730 533 115 > www.mintmotion.co.uk > >
