can i subtract in Slicer?
can i subtract basic primatives or even two STL's one from another in Slicer?
the reason i ask is this...
I would like to print a decent moon that is also a hollowish shell (say 5-7mm thick). I have an STL from thingiverse of the moon and it prints brilliantly if solid.
but i've not found a good way to get a good print after i remove a sphere from it in meshmixer (it appears good until i print and you get weird lattitude lines that arent in the original).
i would remove the sphere in Fusion 360 (my goto software) but it's not good at handling meshs/STLs with so many facets. i cant seem to subtract a solid sphere from the STL in fusion.
here are some images of the problem...
any help would be much appreciated
thanks
RE: can i subtract in Slicer?
Did you try BOOLEAN DIFFERENCE or did you try MAKE HOLLOW to do the carving in Meshmixer?
RE: can i subtract in Slicer?
i used Boolian differance, it was my first time using meshmixer so it is quite probable that i'm not using it very well i'd love any help to sort my problem out. cheers
RE: can i subtract in Slicer?
Try make hollow ... the confusing part (that I also haven't entirely figured out due to the great lack of documentation in all these apps) is the make hole portion, which is what makes the whole action work for FDM printing. You basically need to make the entire inside surface of the hole a normal face - or "connected" to the outside of the globe.
But - the Thingyverse Moon Globe has the attribute it is already hollow, and has terrain inside that helps make the glow when lit from inside "photo realistic" to what you see in the night sky. Here's a slice of the globe:
It comes down to what your plans are for the globe.
RE: can i subtract in Slicer?
oooh thank you! i'm trying hollow right now (on a simpler shape to avoid the huge render time with the moon) i think this will do it! i'll try once i get the controls down 🙂 oh in fact offset seems better for my needs thank you so much!
oh yes the moon lamp is very clever - the inside-out one. But i mean the one that has the terain on the outside. i'm hoping to use this shell i make as a pattern for a metal casting. The hollow tool only seems to give a max wall thickness of 4mm where as i might need 7-8mm (up to 10mm can be dome with offset i think)
i've not printed yet, hopfully the artifacts won't be there, i'll report back with a some progrss asap cheers
RE: can i subtract in Slicer?
Perhaps try this model instead: it does have interior lithophane qualities AND exterior terrain detail.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2771919
RE: can i subtract in Slicer?
because i need the shell thickness to be a particulat thickness for metal to be able to run in it and harden but not so thiock it will give shrink defects.
I'm so grateful to you. I discovered that my scaling was all wrong on my meshmixer, once i had that solved, i could just use the hollow tool and tehn export as an STL. then make the cut to two hemispheres in Slicer PE 🙂
thank you so much, i learn't loads. Meshmixer is really quite useable once you get to grips with it! i'll update here with some photos when the prints are complete (will take 25hrs or so).
RE: can i subtract in Slicer?
Cool ! Now if I could just learn how to use it. Watched videos on doing a couple trick things, and they happened in seconds in the video, even with what looked like complex parts; heck one they even remeshed for the operation. I try the same thing on simple parts and the computer goes out for dinner, in New York. One thing I'd like to know how to do it how to select a group of faces; like only the interior faces; or the side faces; MM grabs they all. lol. Powerful tool, but frustratingly difficult at times. No manual makes it even worse.
RE: can i subtract in Slicer?
yeah i do know what you mean it took A LOT of trial and error before i could even start to work out what was going on with my hollow, it also took maybe 3-4mins to compute each operation, that and making mistakes is nmot a great combo!
but it seems to be printing well so far. very pleased 🙂
RE: can i subtract in Slicer?
Yes, in PrusaSlicer 2.5.0: Expert Plater, right click, Add Negative Volume, Load, and then place the negative volume for a subtraction.
can i subtract basic primatives or even two STL's one from another in Slicer?
the reason i ask is this...
I would like to print a decent moon that is also a hollowish shell (say 5-7mm thick). I have an STL from thingiverse of the moon and it prints brilliantly if solid.
but i've not found a good way to get a good print after i remove a sphere from it in meshmixer (it appears good until i print and you get weird lattitude lines that arent in the original).i would remove the sphere in Fusion 360 (my goto software) but it's not good at handling meshs/STLs with so many facets. i cant seem to subtract a solid sphere from the STL in fusion.
here are some images of the problem...
any help would be much appreciated
thanks
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