I am a beginner in both 3D printing and Blender and this video helped solve so many problems I was having! Great method, explanation, and demonstration even for a total novice.
For those out there without a numpad, the "shift+ctrl+minus" shortcut to perform a "difference" in the bool tool actually refers to "numpad -" in the settings. If you hit ctrl+shift+b you can open up the bool tool window itself and select the diff operation without the shortcut. I'll edit my comment if I find where to rebind hotkeys
If you are having trouble with the Control-Shift- Minus not working do this : Go to Edit>Preferences>Input> and then click the box at the top that reads 'Emulate Numpad'. This should help.
This is so great! I’ve been wanting to do this for so long but I’ve always settled for meshmixer plane cuts. Downloaded blender and this was without a doubt the most beginner friendly tutorial, even taking the time to explain key bindings you’re using etc. 10/10!
This is an absolute life saver. I've been printing some huge Tyranid style figures for my son and a few parts came out perfectly with perhaps a single flaw here and there! Rather than print the whole piece agaiun I can now just get the single bit I need.... Incredible, thank you so much, saves me time and resin.
I've found this video totally by accident after asking on a helmet printing video how to people add holes / registration marks for easier connection (my printing bed is small. so i have to print 8 diff pieces instead of 1 full helmet) and man you are the G Thanks for your video!
This video has been INCREDIBLY helpful. Thank you for posting this as it took this amateur about 2 hours and a failure to figure out what you fit into about 10 minutes.
This worked like a charm slicing a model way too big for my print to make. thank you! Also, depending on the complexity of the seam you can also duplicate existing boundaries on the mesh,, use grid fill, and finally follow the same process to get even more organic shapes as result
As someone who is trying to teach my self modelling for the exclusive purpose of 3d printing - this will com in SUPER handy down the line. Thanks for this!
Honestly I thought cutting a giant area OBJ for making a Gamecube diorama was going to be impossible, but with this I finally know how to cut out the piece I want to use, thank you so much lol
This was super helpful! From my experience with printing it helps to scale up the negative socket ever so slightly. My first time I didn't do it and the positive peg would not fit into the negative.
That's what I do too, usually about 0.1-0.25 mm, but it varies depending on how much desired tightness/looseness, corners, etc. Another bit of advice, is to accurately measure and calibrate your extruding rate. If you're over-extruding, the part will surely be larger than anticipated. Over-extrusion can also be caused by wet filament, so keep the filament dry. (Some materials absorb moisture from the air.)
I would like to say, thank you very much Filaments Folly! Without this tutorial I could not have finished my prints as it it too large for my printer. Very clear instructions all the way!
This is perfect! As one side note for Newbie 3D printers like me, you have to know your printers tolerances and get them compensated or adjust for. My Creality Neo Max prints with about + 0.20 - 0.23mm variance from measured model. So, I have to adjust either the settings or my model if I need accurate fits.
even if your printer is dialed in...EXACT fits aren't a good idea. Over the years they never fit. a tolerance of one nozzle width is good (at least .4mm) that tiny bit of play allows for expansion and exact fits by slighting moving the inserted piece to align better.
Perfect! Just what I needed. Very efficient and easy to follow. So much better than all those other videos on youtube using a cube to copy parts of the model.
This is great. This allowed me to split up a 3D model and print it without having to use a ton of support material. I saw this other video from Artisans of Vaul where he was reposing a model and he added seams along the wireframe of the model, that makes we wonder if those seams can be used to split up the model as well? That would allow very specific cuts instead of eye-balling it with these planes.
outstanding - I can't wait to cut a few things up. thank you heaps. I'm so new to 3D modeling and blender - I'm soaking in as much as I can. thanks again.
thankyou! literally downloaded Blender last week , id love to see something in how to manipulate these sculpts with ball joints, making them a posable figure.
Thanks this is exactly what I was looking for I used to use blender way back when and just got back into 3d printing and modeling and for the life of me couldn’t remember how to do this thank you so much !!
Nice tutorial but I’d do this differently. I’d add a single vert rather than a plane and snap it to the arm seam then extrude and snap more vertices all the way round the shoulder till a ring was formed. Then fill it and alt+s scale on normals up a little and then solidify it. This way of working causes the front to go out of position when you move the back vertices.
Noob question - I'm trying to separate out a head on a model with a tall collar, and this seems like a good idea for that. I found how to enable Add Mesh: Extra Objects in the add ons menu, but I'm not finding how to fill it to do the rest of your suggestion. How do I fill in the random loose collection of verts going around this neck?
Thank you so much for this! It really helps a lot with the 3D model I'm working on for my Power Rangers cosplay. Very well-explained and helpful. Have a great day.
You need to go to "Object" (by default at the top of Blender), then "Bool Tool", then "Difference". That basically subtracts the area where the 2 shapes overlap, creating a very thin gap between the arm and the body (in this case). Had to figure that out myself, hope you did as well!
Thanks man. I couldn't find the 3D Print tab, and eventually found out I had to press "N" lol. Hopefully I'll get the hang of doing this as I want to make large scale prints.
For those of you having problems with the Shift+Ctrl+Minus, I had to close out the application and re open it being the first time I added the boolian addon. Also use the minus key on the number pad.
5:46 "We kinda f... messed up the front a little" Awesome, video. Never knew how this was made. I'll try to replicate it on Cinema4D as I'm more familiarized with it
I subscribed for this video alone. Great tutorial! If I may make a suggestion. I would make the cube key hole first in the body, then I would reduce the size of the cube key and then I would make the union between the key and the arm. This is because it'll leave a hole a little bit bigger that the actual key and when 3D printed it would allow for some variation in size, or dimension inaccuracy, inherent to all 3d printers. Cheers!
you should look into the snaping tool im not sure but you may be able to save time when you make the blade paper mesh to cut the object, and have it snap to verticies i think. not sure though recently started using it
This was excellent! Thank you so much! This was the perfect video I’ve been looking for cut and keying. I’ve used MeshMixer but it has limitations. Continue with Blender tutorials, I’ve been looking for some simple sculpting videos.
I am new to blender though I am an old man, I have been painting minis since the 70’s and was thrilled with the coming of the 3d printing age. Alas, many 3d models (scifi and fantasy) model them with backfill as though they are injection molds -especially paltrons/shoulder guards. I have a chaos dwarf BldBwl team that they look absolutely ridiculous. What would be an effective way to hollow these out properly? I liked your clear no nonsense tutorial on this and would love to see you tackle it.
If you are talking about "hollowing" an already modeled model that you are going to print on a 3d printer (printing an STL?) the modeling software (Blender in this case) wouldn't do anything to the interior of your model. Blender can be used to remove any interior structures that are modeled inside there - but if there is nothing actually modeled inside the model then the process of INFILL is probably what you should be focused on. Your slicer software (software that prepares the model for printing / turning it into machine readable g-code/such as Cura or Slic3r) should have setting for INFILL. If the infill is set to 100% then the entire print will be filled with material (as if injection molded). Lower numbers will fill the interior with less material (typically in a definable and/or structural pattern). So, 0% would mean just the outer shell layer(s) is/are printed (as if a slush mold or blown mold)... sometimes a 0% fill is called a "vase" print. Maybe I am misunderstanding what you are asking here - if so, give some clarification and I will try to help.
So, re-reading your comment - I now think you are talking about needing to remove volume (which you referred to as "backfill") from a premade 3d model. The simplest way to achieve this without any real modelling skills required would be to use the tool(s) called Boolean. Essentially you have a 3d model want to modify, another that will be used to remove part of the first, and then subtract the second from the first. The second model can really be anything (but obviously something would get you at least close to the shape you want carved out).
since the other comment didn't answer your question at all- i mean you could just subtract a sphere or a cylinder to sort of hollow a model, but that isn't really hollowed, you only removed a shape from the model. What you want is the solidify modifier. The model you import into blender is going to be made of meshes- it doesn't actually have any density, it's just a bunch of 2D planes. If you use the solidify modifier, that will make all these planes into a 3d shell. You can set how thick that shell is from the modifier. Generally speaking, its a lot easier to just use the hollowing feature inside whatever slicer you are using, but the above will be how you would do it in blender.
In blender, you can loop cut the model itself. Which saves a lot of time on some models. The other medthod is defining a seam and then cut along. But this asks for sectioning the model first because otherwise the screen will lag on 50mb+ models.
This was very helpful thnx! I need to cut up some Ironman files I bought to add some extra features and i wanted it to cut true a seem so this is perfect
Thanks for the tutorial! How would you go about cleaning the surfaces that come out of the boolean operation? I’m finding that there is no easy way to smooth or remesh them without messing up the model.
great video. only having one problem. the (shift+CTRL-) to show the cut on the arm is not working. It says I need to select at least two objects, which I did and it pops up with report error. any ideas? other then that your video has been quite informative. I am new to blender I'm sure you can tell lol
I am a beginner in both 3D printing and Blender and this video helped solve so many problems I was having! Great method, explanation, and demonstration even for a total novice.
For those out there without a numpad, the "shift+ctrl+minus" shortcut to perform a "difference" in the bool tool actually refers to "numpad -" in the settings. If you hit ctrl+shift+b you can open up the bool tool window itself and select the diff operation without the shortcut. I'll edit my comment if I find where to rebind hotkeys
Thank you!
thanks!!!
still doesn't work
@@Its-TY333 Try ti use older versiom of Blender 2.83.2
@@Its-TY333 I was able to do it on 3.0.0, did you install bool tool and 3d print?
If you are having trouble with the Control-Shift- Minus not working do this : Go to Edit>Preferences>Input> and then click the box at the top that reads 'Emulate Numpad'. This should help.
thank you so much!!
ty
that saved me so much headache! Thank you
beautiful
Thank you so much❤
This is so great!
I’ve been wanting to do this for so long but I’ve always settled for meshmixer plane cuts.
Downloaded blender and this was without a doubt the most beginner friendly tutorial, even taking the time to explain key bindings you’re using etc.
10/10!
This is an absolute life saver. I've been printing some huge Tyranid style figures for my son and a few parts came out perfectly with perhaps a single flaw here and there! Rather than print the whole piece agaiun I can now just get the single bit I need.... Incredible, thank you so much, saves me time and resin.
I've found this video totally by accident after asking on a helmet printing video how to people add holes / registration marks for easier connection (my printing bed is small. so i have to print 8 diff pieces instead of 1 full helmet) and man you are the G
Thanks for your video!
This video has been INCREDIBLY helpful. Thank you for posting this as it took this amateur about 2 hours and a failure to figure out what you fit into about 10 minutes.
this is essential viewing for anyone who buys a 3d printer and uses blender
This worked like a charm slicing a model way too big for my print to make. thank you! Also, depending on the complexity of the seam you can also duplicate existing boundaries on the mesh,, use grid fill, and finally follow the same process to get even more organic shapes as result
As someone who is trying to teach my self modelling for the exclusive purpose of 3d printing - this will com in SUPER handy down the line. Thanks for this!
Honestly I thought cutting a giant area OBJ for making a Gamecube diorama was going to be impossible, but with this I finally know how to cut out the piece I want to use, thank you so much lol
this was super useful and easy to follow. I'm starting with blender, taking my time, but channels like this get the "fear" away to keep on learning.
This was super helpful! From my experience with printing it helps to scale up the negative socket ever so slightly. My first time I didn't do it and the positive peg would not fit into the negative.
That's what I do too, usually about 0.1-0.25 mm, but it varies depending on how much desired tightness/looseness, corners, etc.
Another bit of advice, is to accurately measure and calibrate your extruding rate. If you're over-extruding, the part will surely be larger than anticipated.
Over-extrusion can also be caused by wet filament, so keep the filament dry. (Some materials absorb moisture from the air.)
A refreshing change to see such a clear explanation, thank you
I would like to say, thank you very much Filaments Folly! Without this tutorial I could not have finished my prints as it it too large for my printer.
Very clear instructions all the way!
That was really useful. And I like the way you call out the keys because sometimes its hard to see at the speed people work.
You have singlehandedly been the solution to my issue I was having for days now on Blender. Thank you for making this video.
This is perfect!
As one side note for Newbie 3D printers like me, you have to know your printers tolerances and get them compensated or adjust for.
My Creality Neo Max prints with about + 0.20 - 0.23mm variance from measured model. So, I have to adjust either the settings or my model if I need accurate fits.
even if your printer is dialed in...EXACT fits aren't a good idea. Over the years they never fit. a tolerance of one nozzle width is good (at least .4mm) that tiny bit of play allows for expansion and exact fits by slighting moving the inserted piece to align better.
Super helpful bro. You were clear and too the point. I appreciate you narrating the key commands and having the key cast.
Perfect! Just what I needed. Very efficient and easy to follow. So much better than all those other videos on youtube using a cube to copy parts of the model.
This is great. This allowed me to split up a 3D model and print it without having to use a ton of support material. I saw this other video from Artisans of Vaul where he was reposing a model and he added seams along the wireframe of the model, that makes we wonder if those seams can be used to split up the model as well? That would allow very specific cuts instead of eye-balling it with these planes.
outstanding - I can't wait to cut a few things up. thank you heaps. I'm so new to 3D modeling and blender - I'm soaking in as much as I can. thanks again.
thankyou! literally downloaded Blender last week , id love to see something in how to manipulate these sculpts with ball joints, making them a posable figure.
For anyone using Mac ,
It is shift + Ctrl + B
Then difference
THANK YOU!
😁👍
for me it completely deletes the other part :(
@@Noktarash1990 click/select the "plane" first, then shift click the body.
@@tohnjay I do that, and to simple parts it works, but when the plane has to many corners it starts deleting stuff instead of seperating.
Thanks this is exactly what I was looking for I used to use blender way back when and just got back into 3d printing and modeling and for the life of me couldn’t remember how to do this thank you so much !!
you my hero ! i look 3 or 4 other video but your the only one who explaine well for some one new to blender !
Nice tutorial but I’d do this differently. I’d add a single vert rather than a plane and snap it to the arm seam then extrude and snap more vertices all the way round the shoulder till a ring was formed. Then fill it and alt+s scale on normals up a little and then solidify it. This way of working causes the front to go out of position when you move the back vertices.
Noob question - I'm trying to separate out a head on a model with a tall collar, and this seems like a good idea for that. I found how to enable Add Mesh: Extra Objects in the add ons menu, but I'm not finding how to fill it to do the rest of your suggestion. How do I fill in the random loose collection of verts going around this neck?
This saved me millions of years. Thank you!
This video is going to be saved in my quick access bar for all time.
Very helpful. I have been wanting to learn how to do this for a long time!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you so much for this! It really helps a lot with the 3D model I'm working on for my Power Rangers cosplay. Very well-explained and helpful. Have a great day.
Life saver. Been having a heck of a time with meshmixer
It's been a year and still this tutorial helped, thanks a lot, friend!
i swear these type of videos are GOLD!
Excellent video you were saying things in a very good way to help me fully understand the process. I may seek you for more insight and advice!
Exactly what I needed, thanks! Easy to follow, not too fast and well explained.
This is super helpful! Exactly what I was looking for.
Finally a tutorial that explains how to do this in a way I can understand THANK YOU
This was such a great help cutting models that meshmixer just cant cut. thank you for the information
Best video I´ve seen on cutting, Thank you
Shift Ctrl Minus is a permanent offset zoom out feature now. What were you trying to do that made the plane disappear for the cut?
You need to go to "Object" (by default at the top of Blender), then "Bool Tool", then "Difference". That basically subtracts the area where the 2 shapes overlap, creating a very thin gap between the arm and the body (in this case). Had to figure that out myself, hope you did as well!
@@ValasilphukiirI tried that and it deleted the plane, making a perfect cut, but the section i wanted to cut off and keep disappeared
@@rosshanks3566 I have the same problem, please help @esquebee
@@rosshanks3566 this happens to me, it only keeps 1 side
Thanks man. I couldn't find the 3D Print tab, and eventually found out I had to press "N" lol. Hopefully I'll get the hang of doing this as I want to make large scale prints.
thank you, couldn't figure it out either
This solved a lot of problems that I've been struggling with. Thanks for an awesome tutorial
For those of you having problems with the Shift+Ctrl+Minus, I had to close out the application and re open it being the first time I added the boolian addon. Also use the minus key on the number pad.
im using a laptop and dont have number pad, will it work if i only use the boolean add on?
THANK you!
@@easy_3d shit man I got the same issue
it worket for me.....tnank you man
@@easy_3d try the top comment's emulating keypad maybe?
5:46 "We kinda f... messed up the front a little"
Awesome, video. Never knew how this was made. I'll try to replicate it on Cinema4D as I'm more familiarized with it
Absolutely love this tutorial mate
very usefull, I've been looking all over the youtube for cutting with connectors tutorial. Thanks A LOT!
Shift+ctrl+B for newest version of Blender, select Slice.
I've legit added this to my bookmarks so I never lose it
Maan this is the thing that i want to saw and I hope this will help me very much, thank you.
What is the name of the instruction that you are using it as Shift+Ctrl+ - key for?
"Difference" according to the shortcuts dropdown menu in bool tool add on :)
Difference
Bolean addon (difference).
Same questing, because it doesnt work for me… some time it does, other don’t
Thank you. This video was an immense help.
Thanks for the tutorial! FYI, the plural of vertex is verticess.
If you are using blender 4.2 go to extensions instead of add-ons
Very nice. The cubes you add inside the model - they are called "keys". (molding terminology).
I subscribed for this video alone. Great tutorial! If I may make a suggestion. I would make the cube key hole first in the body, then I would reduce the size of the cube key and then I would make the union between the key and the arm. This is because it'll leave a hole a little bit bigger that the actual key and when 3D printed it would allow for some variation in size, or dimension inaccuracy, inherent to all 3d printers. Cheers!
Omg great tutorial! I have been trying to figure out how to do this, simple enough for a beginner thank you so much!!
I've watched a ton of videos on trying to cut things and i learned so much info and im actually able to continue with my projects! Thank you so much!
Great video! Very informative and straight to the point.
thanks, I hate videos that are longer than they have to be.
I WOULD WATCH EVERY BLENDER VIDEO YOU MAKE
Thanks for the tutorial. Finally I just find what i looked after!
Loved the plane cutting!
you should look into the snaping tool im not sure but you may be able to save time when you make the blade paper mesh to cut the object, and have it snap to verticies i think. not sure though recently started using it
THANK YOU! for this very informative video! It helped me alot cause im noob blender user still :D thank you again!
One thing you could do is select a whole edge loop around the cut area, copy it, paste it as its own object, then fill it in and solidify it.
Thank you, this video is the best I have found!
Thank you so much. this was infinitely helpful!
wow dude, I really loved this tutorial!!! I was looking how to do this for a long time and YT just recommend me to watch this video
This was excellent! Thank you so much! This was the perfect video I’ve been looking for cut and keying. I’ve used MeshMixer but it has limitations. Continue with Blender tutorials, I’ve been looking for some simple sculpting videos.
for Mac user shift + control ^ + - and make sure you have the bool tool add-on enabled because it's the difference bool tool used.
Nice! Think this will be tonight's job trying this out!
I am new to blender though I am an old man, I have been painting minis since the 70’s and was thrilled with the coming of the 3d printing age. Alas, many 3d models (scifi and fantasy) model them with backfill as though they are injection molds -especially paltrons/shoulder guards. I have a chaos dwarf BldBwl team that they look absolutely ridiculous. What would be an effective way to hollow these out properly? I liked your clear no nonsense tutorial on this and would love to see you tackle it.
If you are talking about "hollowing" an already modeled model that you are going to print on a 3d printer (printing an STL?) the modeling software (Blender in this case) wouldn't do anything to the interior of your model. Blender can be used to remove any interior structures that are modeled inside there - but if there is nothing actually modeled inside the model then the process of INFILL is probably what you should be focused on.
Your slicer software (software that prepares the model for printing / turning it into machine readable g-code/such as Cura or Slic3r) should have setting for INFILL. If the infill is set to 100% then the entire print will be filled with material (as if injection molded). Lower numbers will fill the interior with less material (typically in a definable and/or structural pattern). So, 0% would mean just the outer shell layer(s) is/are printed (as if a slush mold or blown mold)... sometimes a 0% fill is called a "vase" print.
Maybe I am misunderstanding what you are asking here - if so, give some clarification and I will try to help.
So, re-reading your comment - I now think you are talking about needing to remove volume (which you referred to as "backfill") from a premade 3d model. The simplest way to achieve this without any real modelling skills required would be to use the tool(s) called Boolean. Essentially you have a 3d model want to modify, another that will be used to remove part of the first, and then subtract the second from the first. The second model can really be anything (but obviously something would get you at least close to the shape you want carved out).
since the other comment didn't answer your question at all- i mean you could just subtract a sphere or a cylinder to sort of hollow a model, but that isn't really hollowed, you only removed a shape from the model.
What you want is the solidify modifier. The model you import into blender is going to be made of meshes- it doesn't actually have any density, it's just a bunch of 2D planes.
If you use the solidify modifier, that will make all these planes into a 3d shell. You can set how thick that shell is from the modifier.
Generally speaking, its a lot easier to just use the hollowing feature inside whatever slicer you are using, but the above will be how you would do it in blender.
the greates tutorial of all time !!!
This was great. I would love more Blender vids!
Great tutorial! Where can I find the model. I like that one.
Shift control minus does not work for me on my Mac :( what is the alternative for this
an I missed this kind of tutorials lol. Great work here, thanks!!!
Straight forward, great tutorial
Best tutorial for doing this! Thank you
amazing, thank you for this easy to understand video
Great video. This is what I was looking for.
Thank you! could not figure it out on my own!
In blender, you can loop cut the model itself. Which saves a lot of time on some models. The other medthod is defining a seam and then cut along. But this asks for sectioning the model first because otherwise the screen will lag on 50mb+ models.
Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a bunch
very helpfull! straight to the point! thanks!
Thank you sooo much!!! I was trying to to this by using booleans and it was so frustrating because it wasn't working
This saved me so much time, Life saver ty
Thank you so much for this guide!!
This is extremely helpful thank you
Just what I need! Thank youuu ❤❤
really really good! Thx very much, exactly what i needed!!!!
This was very helpful thnx! I need to cut up some Ironman files I bought to add some extra features and i wanted it to cut true a seem so this is perfect
Thank you I literally can print anything
Nice, man! Do more of these!
Top stuff man, good video. Just what I needed to know. Should be getting my first 3D printer soon. Going to the Bambo lad p1p 😎
Amazing tutorial man.
Beautiful tutorial. Thanks!
Thanks for the tutorial! How would you go about cleaning the surfaces that come out of the boolean operation? I’m finding that there is no easy way to smooth or remesh them without messing up the model.
great video. only having one problem. the (shift+CTRL-) to show the cut on the arm is not working. It says I need to select at least two objects, which I did and it pops up with report error. any ideas?
other then that your video has been quite informative. I am new to blender I'm sure you can tell lol
After cutting an object in half I have open ends. How do I have to close them with additional walls?