"Union overlapping volumes" not working...?

[swatti 2]

Trying to print one part with "fuzzy skin" merged into another part but the "Union overlapping volumes" is not working.

 

Fresh install of 4.4.something... (took a while to hunt down all the old files)

This used to work, quite a while ago. Its quite noticeable in the preview and the estimated time does not change. It does not seem to change anything if i turn it on or off.

 

Picture/screenshot example of 2 test-cubes overlapping.

[Guest maht]

Thanks for reporting, can you share a 3mf so I can try and replicate this?

[swatti 2]

File added.

 

OVERLAP.3mf

[swatti 2]

On 1/15/2020 at 5:15 PM, maht said:

Thanks for reporting, can you share a 3mf so I can try and replicate this?

Any news on this?

Parts are still overlapping as singular units. 4.4.1

[bagel-orb 61]

That's not how Union overlapping volumes works. It's a bit hard to explain, but here we go.

 

Union Overlapping Volumes is meant to solve problems inside a single mesh, not the interaction between two meshes. If you have two mesh files than their interaction is governed by Remove Mesh Intersection. There is no option to union, because the two meshes might have different settings in the per-object settings menu.

 

If you want to union them you could export those two models as a single STL file and import that again. Then the overlap is within the same model and the Union Overlapping Volumes dos its magic 😉

[thorsenrune 11]

Hi, bagel-orb. Can you please explain further _ I have a question here https://community.ultimaker.com/topic/31493-merging-models

and I try to understand if Mesh fixes is the solution I look for. 

Basically I'd like to slice  as  a solid, because I notice that the interfering layer is weaker for some models.

(Sorry for the formatting, can't find the 'remove formatting' button in this post)

[bagel-orb 61]

Have you tried the suggestion of my last post?

[thorsenrune 11]

Sorry I didn't get the bottom line. Its not possible with cura no? I have to union in the CAD?

[bagel-orb 61]

If you want to Union in Cura then just export to STL in Cura and open that file again in Cura.

Edited March 7, 2020 by bagel-orb

[swatti 2]

On 3/6/2020 at 9:19 PM, bagel-orb said:

If you want to Union in Cura then just export to STL in Cura and open that file again in Cura.

This may work with heavily overlapping parts, like the two squares in the example.

Mine is a bit more complicated construction. Im trying to a make a "grip" with certain surfaces fuzzy-skinned. If i export the 2 parts, the fuzzy skin dissapears from the second part. Also the exporting seems to miss-align the parts couple of times leaving holes in em.

Overalapping parts used to merge just nicely in an older version, cant remember what it was tho... Is the change intentional or a bug?

[bagel-orb 61]

Aha.

 

In that case you may want to try fiddling with the settings Remove Mesh Overlap and Alternate Mesh Removal.

If you turn those off you might get a bit of overextrusion - depending on how much the models overlap.

With the settings turned on you can really overlap the two models as much as you want and Cura will generate an interlocking pattern to fuse the two together quite well.

[swatti 2]

18 hours ago, bagel-orb said:

Aha.

 

In that case you may want to try fiddling with the settings Remove Mesh Overlap and Alternate Mesh Removal.

If you turn those off you might get a bit of overextrusion - depending on how much the models overlap.

With the settings turned on you can really overlap the two models as much as you want and Cura will generate an interlocking pattern to fuse the two together quite well.

I've tried both. Havent been able to get them to work.

"Why?" was this thanged and is it a bug or intentional? As mentioned, unknown previous version had two parts merge. It may have been 3.6 as i used that quite a lot. Sadly it very early version of fuzzy that worked very badly.

[bagel-orb 61]

I don't think it ever work the way you are describing, but then again perhaps I misunderstood the behavior you want.

 

It's not possible to print a part in Cura where half of the part has fuzzy skin, but there is only a single wall going around the whole object. The fuzzy wall will never be connected to the non-fuzzy wall.

 

Or is that not what you mean? Could you please clearly describe exactly how you want your object to be printed?

[swatti 2]

There is/was a youtube video of someone "merging" bunny-models with several slicers, and cura just merged them "as it should" seamlessly.
I'l see if i can find it...

I'm trying to achieve THAT but with the added mix of fuzzying certain part. Even if the "fuzzy insert part" gets fuzzied all over it wont hurt, BUT it needs to connect the walls seamlessly.

It would be fairly easy for me to draw small cuts into the model, if i could define what faces were to be fuzzied by clicking on them in the Cura UI.
I could make those faces stand out for easier spotting from the rest of the model.

Being able to specify certain walls, or regions of a model for specifig settings could be immensly powerfull but how hard that would be to build into Cura is unkown to me.
Reading between the lines from several topics and watching the developement it seems the "engine" in Cura is coming close to a limit where its getting harder to add new features while avoiding breaking existing features.

[bagel-orb 61]

I already implemented that feature a couple of years ago, but there was no way for the user to actually use it. The UI was never implemented and so the idea finally got abandoned.

 

It's true that aim my more features becomes more difficult if you have to think about all possible interactions with other features, but that doesn't stop anybody from implementing new in ones.

[swatti 2]

FOUND IT! There is seems the "bunnies" or their shells are merged perfectly. How do i do that?

https://youtu.be/HhWnIzee3dU?t=156

 

[bagel-orb 61]

On 3/20/2020 at 6:40 AM, swatti said:

I'm trying to achieve THAT but with the added mix of fuzzying certain part.

This is not possible.

 

I like Makers Muse's videos, though. You can merge bunnies by enabling the setting Union Overlapping Volumes, but it only works if those volumes are part of the same STL model.

 

I wrote most of the CuraEngine code; I know quite well what is possible and what not. Take it from me that it is curerntly not possible to have partly fuzzy walls in a seamless way.

[swatti 2]

1 hour ago, bagel-orb said:

This is not possible.

 

I like Makers Muse's videos, though. You can merge bunnies by enabling the setting Union Overlapping Volumes, but it only works if those volumes are part of the same STL model.

 

I wrote most of the CuraEngine code; I know quite well what is possible and what not. Take it from me that it is curerntly not possible to have partly fuzzy walls in a seamless way.

Umm... Show me how to merge stuff.

As seen in the settings, "union, etc" is ON and the parts still "mix up" and overlap. Not like the bunnies in the video.

Those parts are duplicates of each other. Is that a bad thing? The bunnies were dupes too if im not mistaken.

Ok, lets focus first on the merging parts. I think there is something wrong on my end.

PS: huge thx for helping me out.

[bagel-orb 61]

The union only works if it's one model, not if it's multiple models.

 

If you can select both volumes separately Cura will not union them. If you try to select one and you always automatically select both then Cura can merge them. It is therefore impossible to have per-object-settings and also use the unioning.

 

If you want you can join several models into one model, by exporting them to one STL in Cura. If you then clear your build plate and load in the one STL with multiple volumes then they get unioned.

[swatti 2]

How hard would it be to implement the ability to merge models, or select certain walls, or even just polygons to fyzzy?

EDIT: i'd be willing to go an extra mile for the end-result. Even if the UI was a bit complex or "odd" to use.

Edited March 22, 2020 by swatti

[bagel-orb 61]

What your use-case? Why do you want a part of the model using fuzzy skin?

[thorsenrune 11]

Hi, just to throw my two euro-cents into this: I think this thread sums up to that an expanded explanation of how to use union is needed. That rather than fixing the code. 

Speaking for myself I find it much more useful to know exactly what a software feature does. That allows for abandoining an idea or concentrate on a workaround.

Id like to give a hand but don't know how /where.

Rune

[bagel-orb 61]

Have you checked the setting guide on this?

Marketplace > Setting Guide > Install > Restart Cura
Union Overlapping Volumes > Right click > Setting Guide