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Old 27th February 2005, 07:53 PM   #1
snappyman
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Default Hollow shape with thick walls??

I am new to ACD3 and have used it to design several furniture pieces, however, I can't seem to do one simple task. How would I make a random shape with thick walls. For example, on page 25 of the manual, it shows a random shape made by extruding a line. Lets say I wanted the same shape, but I wanted the wall thickness to be 3/4 inch thick,how would I go about doing this?

Phil
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Old 28th February 2005, 12:02 AM   #2
LiveWire
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im not on my comp right now, so i dont have ac3d/ac3d-manual at hand.
but i think your looking for the 'extrude' tool. located in the tool bar next to 'move/size' and 'rotate'.
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Old 28th February 2005, 12:46 AM   #3
snappyman
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I have found some other posts about a similar question and it seems like this may be complicated after all. Some options were to make a hole, but this is not an exact measurement. I need to simulate 3/4 inch wood that has been bent. Shapes will be random, so circles and ellipses don't work. I need to freehand a shape and then extrude it. After that, it is still one thickness. If I extrude the inner surface of this shape, it will be in one direction only. What I would like to do is extrude the inner or outer surfaces equally in all directions.

Phil
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Old 28th February 2005, 01:08 AM   #4
LiveWire
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awww i c.
just a tip(incase you didnt know) if you hold 'ctrl' down while scaling a selection it preforms a uniform scale.
not sure that helps you, but it might be useful.
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Old 28th February 2005, 03:30 AM   #5
kaelastreet
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Hi
This may not help but... As a firm beleiver in 'box' construction, here is how I might go about a random shape with a defined thickness...

1. Create a box.
2. 'Thin' it to the defined thinness.
3. Working with Surfaces, and Vertex's, create, divide, extrude then combine, smooth and presto, any kind of random shape.

4. If the shape is simpler, I might use a boolean to create a 'void' three quarters of an inch away from the outer wall??, that would work too.

(Maya can define a tool such as a 'thickness', so can Autocad I think, but they are both BIG solutions.)

I must not forget, that what I see on the screen is only pixels, and definitions are given to it when I present it to another person. My screen cannot tell if it is 1 inch, 1 millionth of an inch, or one mile thick. AC3D may not be a solution for detailed engineering drawing to be used to drive a CNC machine, but it might be I guess, but it is very good at completing, creating and giving opportunities and ideas life, a life that otherwise might never exist.

Sorry for the rambling, its too early in the day for intelligent thought. (pre 09:00 hours)
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