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I've worked for a while with OpenSCAD as a nice tool to quickly build pieces to then export for 3D printing. In a new use case, I'd like the object to include a human-like arm or head. Think in t...
Question
3d-modeling
#1: Initial revision
by
John C
·
2024-11-18T23:25:21Z (2 days ago)
Turning a Makehuman Surface into a Solid
I've worked for a while with OpenSCAD as a nice tool to quickly build pieces to then export for 3D printing. In a new use case, I'd like the object to include a human-like arm or head. Think in terms of parts for a model for assembly, here, where OpenSCAD code might divvy up the body parts and add integration points. [Makehuman](http://www.makehumancommunity.org/) exists, providing a quick and open source way to get fairly complete and diverse human models. So far, so good. However, exporting the "character" as an STL file, say, only provides me with a surface mesh, which seems useless in OpenSCAD. Instead, I want a filled, solid object, a solid volume representing the space inside the mesh. Looking through discussions for other open source 3D software, I can find plenty of people using FreeCAD to "fill the mesh" meaning to make the mesh a continuous surface. And Blender discussions have no shortage of people explaining how to "solidify" the surface mesh into a solid-but-hollow *shell* to various approximations of the original shape. But I can't find anything on getting an object that covers all space inside the surface, except for a wildly optimistic suggestion to "just" use OpenSCAD primitives to approximate the character and ignore Makehuman altogether... Does anybody have pointers on how to do this? "Make the solid object represented by this surface" feels like it *should* be a routine feature of all these products, but I can't find anything of the sort. Thanks!