boolean quit after mesh got big?

# 1 09-02-2007 , 09:52 PM

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Strange thing I don't understand here. I was using boolean difference to make a tunnel mesh, one Tunnel to the next. After 4 pieces were connected the 5th would not work. If I selected the 4 connected mesh object then the new piece and did a difference, both objects were deleted. I test the operation with two small pieces and it works just fine. Is there a limit on connected mesh objects that boolean cant handle?

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# 2 10-02-2007 , 01:13 AM

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i hate booleans :angery:

https://forums.simplymaya.com/showthr...threadid=25000

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# 3 10-02-2007 , 06:52 AM

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yeah there sometimes a real pain in the butt

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# 4 10-02-2007 , 07:12 AM

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Yeah, booleans are very unpredicatable, but sometimes the only practical tool for making something.

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# 5 10-02-2007 , 12:18 PM

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Originally posted by The Architect
but sometimes the only practical tool for making something.

Originally Posted by

Not really, you should plan your modeling first so that you dont have to use them.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 6 12-02-2007 , 08:02 AM

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Originally posted by gster123
you should plan your modeling first so that you dont have to use them.

Originally Posted by

yeah, planning dosnt hurt and will help you later on when you encounter any other problems... ived learnt my lesson :p

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# 7 12-02-2007 , 10:21 AM

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I made it work experimenting with clean up options. Some day I'll learn this planning thing.

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# 8 12-02-2007 , 11:06 AM

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Re: boolean quit after mesh got big?

Originally posted by ulaoulao
Strange thing I don't understand here. I was using boolean difference to make a tunnel mesh, one Tunnel to the next. After 4 pieces were connected the 5th would not work. If I selected the 4 connected mesh object then the new piece and did a difference, both objects were deleted. I test the operation with two small pieces and it works just fine. Is there a limit on connected mesh objects that boolean cant handle?

Originally Posted by

there is a problem with booleans creating dirty geometry. If I have to do multiple booleans on something, then after each boolean, I delete all the history and then clean the geometry getting rid of things like nonmanifold geometry and surfaces of zero size. that usually works.

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# 9 13-02-2007 , 05:34 AM

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gster123 > 'Not really, you should plan your modeling first so that you dont have to use them.'

Well I suck at modelling (or maybe I restrict myself to making things with exact dimensions), anyways, say if I want a circular hole punched into flattened poly cube that represents a steel plate, how should I do this without a boolean operation? Its the only way I've figured out so far.

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# 10 13-02-2007 , 06:01 AM

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I would either use the split poly tool to create it and then split some more to get the mesh all quads as if you then smooth it will come out nice and round, or extrude the face tool depending on the geometry of the surface. May be a longer way round but your mesh will be all the better for it, and so will your modeling skills.

The main problems with boolians is that they give really unpredictable meshes with ngons, tris, non manifold geo, odd verticies, that if you then smooth or convert to sub'd's become very messey, in modeling your best off to try and keep to all quads (although sometimes the odd tri or n gon isnt too bad). Thats why I pretty much never use them. You can use them but you really need to match the operation to the mesh so that you know what your going to get.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 11 14-02-2007 , 02:37 AM

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Thanks for the reply gster123, but how accurate can this method be in regards to geometry? I've tried it before and it isn't too precise (its most likely that I don't know enough about the tool).

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boolean quit after mesh got big?

Re: boolean quit after mesh got big?

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