Blender - Software experiments. What do I do now? ;-)

ajlelectronics · Jul 3, 2023

I want to alter this scanned item to reduce the shoulder width to 150mm, leaving everything else as is. I don't have the faintest idea how to start and an hour playing has not enlightened me at all.

Agroshield · Jul 4, 2023

If it were a real world object, you might obtain a copy of it, cut off each copy the bits you did not want and then glue the parts back together.

Can you do the same electronically? Draw a cutting plane (cuboid) on it 75mm from the left edge and delete (boolean cut) everything to the right of that plane. Save that 'half'. Do the same for the right side and then glue (boolean union) them back together.

You might have to apply some electronic bondo to smooth the glue line.

That said, it is not absolutely clear what bit is the 'shoulder width' (my suggestion above is based on guessing that it is the overall left-to-right dimension in the first picture), so if you could highlight the screenshot that would help.

You might have to adopt a two stage process - print out two of what you have, do a saw and isopon job on it and then rescan.

PhillipM · Jul 4, 2023

It won't be a solid in blender at a guess, it'll be a mesh, especially as scanned in.
I wouldn't be using Blender for mechanical CAD work at all, it's entirely the wrong software - it's really meant for sculpting, modeling and rendering, where it doesn't matter if your parts or solid or even have watertight meshes, or that anything is actually sized or constrained dimensionally.
You could shove it around with proportional sculpting I guess if it doesn't need to be that accurate.

ajlelectronics · Jul 4, 2023

Right OK, I am using the wrong tools!

The idea was to take an original trim cover for the gearstick and modify it to fit into a narrower space. I also wanted to attach it to a base plate which would be the size of the space available, so printing it is an ideal method. I have scanned it, although it needs a better quality scan really and then I am stuck with how to manipulate it the way I want to. I can't load it into the latest DSM version which is annoying so not sure where to go from here?

ajlelectronics · Jul 4, 2023

Agroshield said:
You might have to adopt a two stage process - print out two of what you have, do a saw and isopon job on it and then rescan.

I had started doing that some time ago, with a fibreglass mould of it. However, now I am into 3D printing, I hoped it would be a simple matter. :whistle:

Erie Fred · Jul 4, 2023

Can you do a scaling in only 1 direction ?
as in narrow it up ?

ajlelectronics · Jul 4, 2023

Erie Fred said:
Can you do a scaling in only 1 direction ?
as in narrow it up ?

The top aperture needs to remain as is and so does the slight curvature of the top which matches the shifter bezel. The centre console in the car is only 6" wide so I need to narrow it at the shoulders to fit that dimension, without affecting any other dimension.

Agroshield · Jul 4, 2023

It is not much help as you do not use the software and it is hard to learn, but the Mesh Workbench in FreeCAD seems to offer some possibilities:

Mesh Workbench - FreeCAD Documentation

wiki.freecad.org

From a cold start, having never used it before, I just imported the STL of the Dickson holder holder that ukracer uploaded. It is easy to create a plane and then split the mesh into two separate pieces using the plane.