boolean operation disappears

# 1 03-07-2011 , 09:22 PM

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Join Date: Oct 2010

Posts: 234

I need to cut a circle in a curved surface. I'm trying a boolean as it's thru one face so I'm hoping it won't make much mess. however, when I perform the operation everything disappears!

...?

Last edited by se7enhedd; 06-04-2012 at 10:18 AM.

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# 2 03-07-2011 , 10:15 PM

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Join Date: Jan 2004

Location: Bolton - UK

Posts: 2,457

I get this a lot.

One make sure all the history on the objects has been deleted and try again. Failing that - cut the face you want to make the boolean operation out of the main shape, delete history again then try.

The first option normally kills the problem for me, but on rare times it don`t the second one does.

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# 3 03-07-2011 , 10:40 PM

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cheers tt - deleting the history worked... but it absolutely massacred the mesh. I just don't get this cutting holes lark.

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# 4 04-07-2011 , 10:17 AM

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Join Date: Jan 2004

Location: Bolton - UK

Posts: 2,457

Don`t blame the tools - you built the thing

Killing history is nothing but a good thing, having messy meshes is down to you.

But glad I could help

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# 5 04-07-2011 , 10:55 AM

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Join Date: Oct 2010

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well that's told me! user added image

it doesn't look like a messy mesh to me. it's more that I haven't learn enough about setting up for booleans yet... they're not high on the list right now.

anyway, I've managed to make do a nice job using an oval plane and bridging it :

thanks for the tip user added image

Last edited by se7enhedd; 06-04-2012 at 10:18 AM.

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# 6 04-07-2011 , 12:42 PM

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Join Date: Feb 2010

Location: Australia

Posts: 4,255

Booleans can be a right royal pain...but they do have uses and you do need to plan ahead. Sometimes its just as easy to split poly what you want, delete face etc etc. Tweety is right though...delete history before you try it..or as he said extract the face you want to boolean then sew it back up. I have also found that boolean over an edge through the middle...if you dont you wont be able to split poly to clean it up...it wont start an edge on a hole...but if you have one there first it will...go figure.

cheers bullet

bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

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# 7 04-07-2011 , 02:24 PM

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Join Date: Mar 2007

Posts: 1,055

I don't think your mesh was messy at all. The problem is there was not enough geometry - for a boolean to work there must be more edges on each object, which intersect the other object. There is almost always cleanup work to do afterwards,

cheers

gubar

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boolean operation disappears

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