Hollow Sphere

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Ray Weston

• June 16, 2022 06:57

I've just installed BoolTools 2 with the objective of creating a hollow sphere with the "hollow" in the shape of an octahedron. Think of a cube completely enclosed by a larger sphere. I can draw both solid components and center them both at 0,0,0. When I try to use the Difference Tool to subtract the "cube" from within the sphere, I can't select the "cube" because it's hidden inside the sphere. Is this not possible with BoolTools?

This is for a 3D printing project. I export the sphere as an STL. While you can't see the hollow inside of the sphere, it must be there in the prescribed shape and orientation when sliced and printed.

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  Dale Martens

  • June 20, 2022 15:30

  Hi Ray - you don't need to use BT for this.  Just create the inner octahedron inside the other one and make sure that its faces all point inwards.  Also make sure that all of the faces are within the same group or component.  If you do it right, SketchUp will still recognize the object as a solid and it should be fine for 3D printing.

   

  

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  Ray Weston

  • June 21, 2022 19:35

  Hi Dale.  I hadn't thought about reversing the faces, but that worked.  Thank you!  I centered the sphere and the reverse-faced octahedron, exploded everything and made a new component.  Voila!  A hollow sphere as a Solid SketchUp component.  It exports and slices perfectly.  Seems I'm always learning something new about SketchUp.  Thanks again.

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