Convert a surface to a solid using the thicken command. This method is applicable in the creation of a three-dimensional solid object from a two-dimensional surface, even in instances where you're dealing with a complex plastic part that people will interact with.
Key Insights
- The procedure starts with selecting the entire toolbox surface. The thickness, which might default to five millimeters, should be re-adjusted to become negative in order to pull the surface to the inside. This makes the surface appear as the outside skin of the solid.
- In setting the thickness to the inside, a minus three millimeters is used. This is followed by choosing one side for the direction and selecting a rounded type. Although these options are quite limited, they are sufficient for creating a solid.
- The resultant solid object has a consistent three millimeter thickness all the way around. This demonstrates an efficient use of material. Furthermore, the toolbox surface remains intact and is useful for creating the thickness, hence it cannot be deleted without consequences.
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Now we're back to our working together mode. So go ahead and follow along. We will be using this method.
We have our surface, and we want to convert it to a solid. The way that we are going to do this is by doing a thicken command. So go up to create in the surface area and select thicken.
Now our first option here in the thicken rollout is to select our faces. We want to select our entire toolbox surface. So, in bodies under the toolbox base, select that full surface.
Now, the thickness, I believe the default might be five millimeters, and it will be a positive five. And what that does is it pulls the surface that we have out. And that's not the way we've been thinking about this.
We have been thinking about this surface as the outside skin. We want to go to the inside. How do we do that? We do a negative.
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We'll type in minus and then do minus three. So three millimeters thickness to the inside. The direction we want is one side, and the type we want is rounded.
You can experiment with both. You'll notice that the sharp does give indeed very sharp edges on the inside, which sometimes is fine. But we're dealing with plastic, and it's a part that people will interact with.
We want to keep it rounded. Now, the big downside to using the thicken command is that we don't get a lot of options. It will just follow the surface that we have.
We can't create any deviation on the inside. We also don't get to pick the rounded radius. It's going to just pick our thickness and use that for the radius.
So all of these internal radii will be three millimeters. We don't get to choose, but that's okay. We're going to go ahead and click okay and look at the result.
Number one, we get a lot of bang for our buck. We have quite the solid here with only one move on our timeline. So it's not a whole lot for a computer to think about, which is great.
That's a good benefit. Number two, it's a consistent three millimeter thickness all the way around. We are being very efficient with our material.
And then number two, we kind of get an interesting result. We don't just get a solid body. Our toolbox surface still exists.
And in fact, we can't delete it without consequences. It's going to stay here in our browser. And so that will remain because it's kind of a tool that gets used to create this thickness.
Now the thickness needs a name. Right now, it's called body in a number. We're going to call this toolbox base thickened.
That'll help us remember, for now, the difference between the two. And it's showing. The other one is hidden by default.
Let's right-click on it and go to properties. And we'll now notice that it has a volume and a mass. We've successfully created our thickened toolbox.
And it's a great time to go ahead and hit that save button.
