Boolean in Carrara or Hexagon or am I a fool?

Storyteller

mostly solid modeler, solidworks, autocad, etc, however, here is a list and some links. CSG is Booleans, just, sensible. Adding CSG trees to carrara is a no brainer. Adding CSG trees to Hex ..and an intelligent solid to polymesh algorythm' is slightly harder.

For starters, there is DeleD3d, it is open source and has a great CSG implementation. Ive not noticed lot of the traditional artifacts in polymesh conversion.

http://www.delgine.com/

here is a pdf on csg bsp
https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/jackiey/resources/CSG/CSG_report.pdf

and here is a list of software from wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_solid_geometry

Applications with CSG support[edit]
Generic modelling languages and software[edit]
HyperFun
PLaSM - Programming Language of Solid Modeling

Ray-tracing and particle transport[edit]
PhotoRealistic RenderMan
POV-Ray
CAD[edit]
BRL-CAD
FreeCAD
OpenSCAD
SolidWorks mechanical CAD suite
Vectorworks

Gaming[edit]
GtkRadiant
UnrealEd
Valve Hammer Editor
Roblox

Others[edit]
3Delight
Blender (provides meta objects)
Clara.io
Feature Manipulation Engine

article from leadwerks (a game engine)
http://www.leadwerks.com/files/csg.pdf

and for grandpa, here is a page on CSG for POV-Ray
http://www.f-lohmueller.de/pov_tut/csg/povcsg1e.htm

anyway, I think seeing CSG in Carrara or Bryce would be a thing, maybe in some form it is already there.. I mean Hex already uses dynamic geometry stacks...
Perhaps its just the algorithm used in some of the software Ive used that is so nice, but I would never confuse CSG with polygon booleans.

cdordoni

If you have to use booleans and are running into difficulties, its possible to repair the objects in another application and bring them back in for additional work.

I used Hexagon and the free version of Netfabb to build some models for 3d printing. After a few boolean operations, when Hex would refuse to do any more with it, I would export the model and repair it in Nefabb, then bring it back in to Hexagon to do more booleans. I usually had to repeat this process many times to finish a model.

Roygee

Thanks for the information - very interesting. I've downloaded Deled to give it a try and see whether it can give a clean mesh:)

Design Acrobat

Roygee said:

Thanks for the information - very interesting. I've downloaded Deled to give it a try and see whether it can give a clean mesh:)

I might be incorrect but I think you have to purchase the pro version of DeleD to get some of the Boolean functions like subtract - Otherwise you just get slices ($75 I think is the price). There is a demo though. Pretty sure it triangulates, so unless you have a program that will remesh into quads like Zbrush or 3Dcoat - you're stuck with triangles.

Edit: Added some snaps to show the differences of Boolean in 3DCoat and Carrara and also what it looks like in quads after being remeshed in Zbrush.

Top is booleaned in 3dCoat
Center is remeshed in Zbrush
Bottom is booleaned in Carrara with remeshed results similar to the image shown above.

Roygee

I did give DeleD a spin ( it does have the normal Boolean functions, but not as many options as Hexagon) and not at all impressed. Don't see anything that couldn't be done better in any other application. Took a look at the example files and they aren't up to much. I certainly wouldn't fork over any money for it. Of the Daz products, Bryce gives the best results, but then Boolean is it's only modeling method. I personally find modeling in Bryce difficult because of all the intersecting lines - you really have to have your whits about you :)

If I absolutely have to do a Boolean operation, I would do it either in Hexagon and remesh in Blender, or just do it in Blender. What I like about Blender and Bryce is that Boolean is non-destructive until you finally commit, so you can keep adjusting to see the result.