Hi there, this feels like a dumb question, and I have been searching, but did not find this specific scenario, but I’m currently confused with something that seems to be simple.
So I’m making something to be 3D printed and I need to make the parts like eyes separate so they can print in a different color, for example if I mask and extract on a curved surface using Extract Shell close.
And then I take the “Sphere ext” object to Boolean subtract into the “Sphere” object, it’s not flush on the sphere when I move it using the Gizmo, am I doing this wrong? How do you go about making separate parts like this on curved surfaces? Thanks for any help! (I had more screenshots but it won’t let me add more than one, hope my one photo and explanation works)
I usually mask > extract > Boolean using the part that goes inside. That way I can create the space I need and it fits intimately against the part it’s going into.
So:
mask your small cylinders
adjust extract amount
extract a shell of the small cylinders.
select your large sphere and the [hidden] extracted shells
Boolean
You should now have a gap to fit your small cylinders into.
Ok, thank you, I was just making a shape using the ellipse tool through Sel Mask for example, you would do it with cylinder primitive instead? Confused how that gives me the curved face flush with the sphere still.
I think there’s a misunderstanding, I’m confused because when I move the Ext parts back into the sphere, they are not flush, like in the top view from the first pic, even though they were extracted from that same sphere at the same scale. This is just an example model trying to show what I don’t understand. I made the Ext parts red to help visualize and made it a more organic shape which I will be more likely to use in practice.
Video attached:
Thanks for all the responses, apologies if this is just like a simple thing, but it’s throwing me for a loop on why it’s not flush haha.
[Positive] Extracting from the sphere will change the circumference of the outside extraction and make it larger. So yes, it’s going to not be perfectly flush when you move it in.
Think about your original object like an orange. The extraction is the orange’s skin. The orange’s skin has a larger circumference than the actual orange. If you could move the oranges skin through the orange itself, this same thing would happen. The center would hit first and go through it and then eventually the sides would.
If you’re wanting to keep the circumference of the sphere then you need to do a negative extraction. Since you have the extracted parts already, you can use Boolean to get the ext. parts to have the same curve:
duplicate main sphere
move the ext. parts into the sphere so they’re intersecting
I’m assuming if I do negative instead of positive extraction, since I do shell it makes the sphere hollow, but I could duplicate the sphere and make the Boolean cut and then I’d have flush parts and and solid cuts in the sphere?
It can’t work like that.
Your pivot is in the wrong position …
You are extracting 2 objects - you can only extract 1 object and must position the pivot in the normal of the sphere.
By the way, for what you want to do there are other solutions than moving the extracted mesh back.
Also, btw, the Baymax in my profile uses your knitted triplanar texture I bought from your Etsy, I want to get better at making these separate part knitted characters for easy printing.
