3D Printing Forum

You could also try Onshape, there is a free version.

Country_Bubba wrote: ↑March 27th, 2023, 6:59 am Freecad might be able to do it, but my experience with that cad is extremely limited. I find the UI difficult to understand.

https://www.freecad.org/

ok. i'll be trying my hand at that.

can you explain in a bit more detail how you did the second step:
'2. Did a mesh repair as a stich and remove function to do a rudimentary fix of the file.'

With the original mesh open,
Select the "Mesh" Menu system:


Ithen selected the "Prepare" section and then the "Repair" item:


Then used the "Stitch and Remove " command


Selected the surface and hit "OK"

Hope the images come through and this helps.


Country

ok thanks, i'll try that out and see if i can adapt it for freecad

Country_Bubba wrote: ↑April 1st, 2023, 8:48 am With the original mesh open,
Select the "Mesh" Menu system:


Ithen selected the "Prepare" section and then the "Repair" item:


Then used the "Stitch and Remove " command


Selected the surface and hit "OK"

Hope the images come through and this helps.


Country

Hi Country,

i think i've managed to adapt your instructions for freecad and made the image a solid, but i can't fill it properly. how did you put the back and top covers on it, and how did you fill it?

all the best.

In fusion, it did it just by using the commands as listed. As stated, never worked with surfaces before so don't know how to answer your question. Sorry.

Country

i want to thank everyone for all the help and give a quick update. after following the instructions given by country i think i have managed to do it properly in fusion. so a massive thanks country!

Glad we were able to help:})

Country_Bubba wrote: ↑May 28th, 2023, 8:54 am Glad we were able to help:})

do you know how I might be able to reduce the amount of material inside the head? I went to print it and the print will almost take a week
because the step to fill it in was done inside fusion360 I assume that I would need to reduce the amount of material in fusion.

here's a link to the model i'm talking about:
https://fastupload.io/OGPdeJIXQDnSzde/file

and i've attached a picture. the green arrow points to the area i'm focused on.

I have avoided answering this one in your other thread because you are asking for an oxymoron! Remove material, but not provide support! If you remove material, it won't be supported and you state you don't want to print support. Can't have it both ways.
Now having said that, you might try the shell command applied to the back face and then try slicing it to see your print time etc. You will probably have to add supports and I would suggest trying various types to see the effect on material usage, and time to print. Also might try slicing as is with a very reduced infill and maybe with something like the "lighting" infill??

basically I just need to reduce the amount of material inside the head to a healthy middle ground where there is enough to serve as a support, but not so much that it takes nearly a week to print. that way I won't need to add any additional supports, while still maintaining a printable object. (but adding supports is fine. i don't have any problems with that.) the original problem i faced was having the object in blender not being anywhere near thick enough to 3d print, hence the need for infill.

is there any way that i could tweak the amount of infill inside the head? because that's all i really need to do.

the material that has filled the head is produced in fusion after I solidified it. so i'm not sure if i would be able to alter the amount of it in another program.

can you elaborate on what you mean by 'shell command applied to the back face'?

i'll try out your other suggests asap

The shell command in fusion 360 removes all material from the inside and leaves a wall of the thickness you desire. i say apply to the back face as it will remove that face to shell out the rest of the body.
You can then slice with supports of your choice.
If you slice with it as is, you can set your wall thickness in cura and also specify the density of the infill. I usually use between 10 and 15% for non structural parts.
As previously stated, try it different ways to see what the estimated time and materials are.