Solid STL with Hallow sections inside. Best Way to remove voids?
What Is a good way to remove the internal voids?
I ended up using Mesh Mixer to make it solid (needed?)
Then using select visible while rotating the part and holding shift until almost all of the outside was selected.
Using Invert to select the internal components and finally hitting delete, and rerunning make solid to fix any deleted external areas.
Is there an easier way to accomplish this? Don't want to use supports internal as apposed to infill.
Best Answer by Neophyl:
Well it took me about 20 seconds to remove the internal void in Blender, and most of that was actually importing the object as I had to browse to where I saved the stl I exported from your project 🙂
If it wasn't for the fact that you probably want to keep the mounting screw holes you can use Print Settings>advanced>Slicing>Slicing Mode and change from regular to 'Close holes'. Unfortunately that fills in ALL the holes including the screws so not really what you want.
So I exported the object as an stl, imported it into blender. From there it was select object, change to Edit mode, change to select vertex mode, change to wireframe mode so that all the vertices are visible and selectable including ones inside the model. Click on one of the internal vertices from the interior void you want to remove. The did a cntrl+L which selects all linked vertices. That selects everything from that internal void, and finally click delete and delete vertices. Bam, internal void gone. Then a simple export stl and load it back into PS and slice. Sounds like a lot but it really does take only a few seconds - once you know how. And that's always the tricky bit. Most of the steps I did have shortcuts or single icon clicks so its really quick to do.
If you want us to examine an stl file zip it and attach it here - or if you suspect your slicer settings save your project as a .3mf file
Files > Save Project as
Zip the .3mf and post it here. It will contain both your part and your settings for us to diagnose.
Cheerio,
RE: Solid STL with Hallow sections inside. Best Way to remove voids?
Hopefully that that loaded the zip file correctly
RE: Solid STL with Hallow sections inside. Best Way to remove voids?
Well it took me about 20 seconds to remove the internal void in Blender, and most of that was actually importing the object as I had to browse to where I saved the stl I exported from your project 🙂
If it wasn't for the fact that you probably want to keep the mounting screw holes you can use Print Settings>advanced>Slicing>Slicing Mode and change from regular to 'Close holes'. Unfortunately that fills in ALL the holes including the screws so not really what you want.
So I exported the object as an stl, imported it into blender. From there it was select object, change to Edit mode, change to select vertex mode, change to wireframe mode so that all the vertices are visible and selectable including ones inside the model. Click on one of the internal vertices from the interior void you want to remove. The did a cntrl+L which selects all linked vertices. That selects everything from that internal void, and finally click delete and delete vertices. Bam, internal void gone. Then a simple export stl and load it back into PS and slice. Sounds like a lot but it really does take only a few seconds - once you know how. And that's always the tricky bit. Most of the steps I did have shortcuts or single icon clicks so its really quick to do.
RE: Solid STL with Hallow sections inside. Best Way to remove voids?
Awesome thankyou! I do have blender installed but I have not used it much. I will give these instructions a try, I appreciate the help.
RE: Solid STL with Hallow sections inside. Best Way to remove voids?
Thanks worked really well.
Need to learn this software a bit. They only part I did not figure out was "change to select vertex mode" It seemed to automatically do that when switching to wireframe mode, but would be nice to know how to do that in normal view.
Thanks
RE: Solid STL with Hallow sections inside. Best Way to remove voids?
In blender is there an easy way to make the bottom of this STL flat without any voids. I tried a few methods that were not successfull. If its not an easy thing to do then don't worry about it, I can learn more and then figure it out.
RE:
When you switch to Edit Mode theres a dropdown usually located top left area where you can change the mode, so lists Object Mode, Edit Mode, Sculpt mode etc. Next to that are 3 icons. Those are vertex mode, line mode and face mode. One of the issues with Blender is that almost every control or function can be assigned a shortcut, or its shortcut can be changed to suit you. Some of the extras you can install will also modify those shortcuts which can also be a pain in the rear if you are used to what they are 🙂
Once in edit mode the number keys on the main keyboard above the letters 1 selects vertex mode, 2 selects line mode and 3 selects face mode. At least for me lol. The number pad numbers do different stuff, usually switch the viewing angle which is also very useful, at least in my workflow.
You cant see the mesh normally in object mode as you cant edit it in Object mode. There are settings where you can make the objects edges etc show up better though in object mode. Youtube is full of tutorials for stuff. I still go looking even now when I need to learn something new. And theres always something new.
Thanks worked really well.
Need to learn this software a bit. They only part I did not figure out was "change to select vertex mode" It seemed to automatically do that when switching to wireframe mode, but would be nice to know how to do that in normal view.Thanks
RE: Solid STL with Hallow sections inside. Best Way to remove voids?
Yep its also easy to do (once you know how) 😉 Took about 30 seconds.
When I import that stl in its rotated 90 degrees compared to the other stl (probably because I exported that one from the project and it was flat to the bed). So looking at the model the surface you want to be flat in in the Y axis rather that Z for up/down.
So after loading it in I did the same as before , switch to wireframe mode and then edit mode and vertex mode so I can see all the verts. I then used number 3 on the keypad to switch the view to look at it side on. SO the area you want flat in on the left. Like if it was to be screwed to the wall.
Using the mouse to draw a selection box I dragged it across so it selected all the verts on the bottom but not the 'top' surface of that area. Also have to be careful to NOT select the recess for the screw heads.
Then if you use the keyboard and type "s" followed by "y" followed by zero and then enter all those verts will be scaled in the Y axis. In effect in lines ALL of them up to the same relative Y position. You can then drag them a bit further along the Y axis to make the base of the ryobi holder 'thicker' and give a bit more room for the next step. 
That still leaves us with an area that's still recessed and would need supports if printed. So zooming in a little I draw a selection around the verts in that area-
Then do the same as before with S (for scale), Y (to determine the axis to scale in and Zero for the amount of scale, followed by enter to confirm. I can then drag those over to the same general area in Y as the previous ones. Then another draw selection box over all of those
Followed yet again by SY0 to line them all up in the Y axis. You now have a completely flat surface for the bottom of the Holder. You could of course do the internal surface at the very top of the object (to the right in the pics) but that shaft will bridge across the top easily so wont need supports and the fact that it will have interior walls/perimeters too will make the print stronger. You can adjust the position in Y as you want to make the base of the part you are screwing to the wall as thick or as thin as you want.
Essentially you just have to be careful what verts you select before lining them up. You could spend more time in the selection and then do one single scale Y by zero operation but I find it easier to do them in successive ones. As you are just drag selecting and then typing 4 keystrokes it becomes very quick to do.
I've attached the modified stl I did here too. Oh once I had the base all aligned I then used Delete followed by a limited dissolve on those verts selected to reduce the unneeded ones down if you wondered why theres so few left on that base once you examine the stl 🙂
In blender is there an easy way to make the bottom of this STL flat without any voids. I tried a few methods that were not successfull. If its not an easy thing to do then don't worry about it, I can learn more and then figure it out.
RE: Solid STL with Hallow sections inside. Best Way to remove voids?
Thanks for the detailed instructions. I was able to follow along and accomplish the task. Agree on the bridging no need to do that extra work.
I will have to wrap my ahead around how Scaling to 0 does not reduce lengths to 0, but I have a feeling that will come along with learning blender better.
Thanks again for the help!