cant booleen out wheel wells

[Michael Wilson]

boolean doesnt seem to work on these two simple shapes, i dont understand what is wrong. heres the ac3d file of the two shapes:

http://forjets.netfirms.com/try_to_booleen_wheel_well.zip

heres the first screenshot showing the first shape highlighted, and the second shape im using to cut with.

http://www.x-plane.org/home/michael_wilson/pic/z_screens0411.jpg

and heres the result, it doesnt seem to cut.

http://www.x-plane.org/home/michael_wilson/pic/z_screens0412.jpg

[Andy]

Flip the normals on the box, they are facing inwards and should not be for the boolean functions to work.

A quick way to check for this is to set all surfaces to 1S (one-sided) - you'll soon see which normals are wrong. Also, press 'n' in the 3d window and check you can see all the pink line coming out of each surface. If you see only a pink dot, you need to flip the normal.

[Michael Wilson]

thanks that solved it.

just curious, when did ac3d get boolean ability? i dont remember having it when i first learned ac3d.

[Andy]

V6.0 I think.

[BumblebeeMan]

I am looking at a toughie here, I am trying to sculpt out gunports on an aircraft.
The elliptical shape to the fuselage makes the process tricky. I need to make it look ultimately like this: (see attachment)

there HAS to be a simple way (the quick picture I did was done in Bryce, it cannot be used in AC3D or X Plane but makes for some quick 3d 'sketches')

[captainpeter]

I get the best (and most predictable) results by following a few simple rules.
• make sure normals point into the proper direction on both objects (nose-cone & cylinder used for cutting)
• make sure both objects are closed (maybe close the nose-cone temporarily at its base)
• make sure the mesh resolution is high enough

here's my _very_ rough attempt at it (both objects were 'double sided', then select base object first, shift select cylinder to cut-out, then boolean-subtract):

[captainpeter]

Ahem, I must add that there sometimes are minor 'repairs' required after boolean operations.
I always save the model before and try to adjust the respective parts as good as possible first. I still need quite a few attempts for the desired result.

[BumblebeeMan]

I get the best (and most predictable) results by following a few simple rules.
• make sure normals point into the proper direction on both objects (nose-cone & cylinder used for cutting)
• make sure both objects are closed (maybe close the nose-cone temporarily at its base)
• make sure the mesh resolution is high enough

here's my _very_ rough attempt at it (both objects were 'double sided', then select base object first, shift select cylinder to cut-out, then boolean-subtract):

i managed to figure it out. still getting the hang of exporting the model to AC3D then back. I think i am getting somewhere now though. Will find out shortly. I'll follow your tips though. They make sense.