1
$\begingroup$

I'm pulling my hair out over this bizarre issue that I'm having. If I create any text and convert it to a mesh I can successfully Boolean it against a cube. However, if I then attempt to do the same thing with a 2nd text mesh it does correctly Boolean the cube, however, it's always missing the back end of the engraved text.

Here's a simple case where I have a cube and the letters A and B which I converted to meshes from a Text object. This is what it looks like before Booleaning:

Cube with A and B text before booleaning

It doesn't matter which one I do first, but which ever letter I choose it will correctly do a difference boolean. In this case I did a Boolean with the A. Now, however, if I attempt to Boolean the B it doesn't work quite right - you can see thru the back since it doesn't generate any polls. This composite image shows the correct result of the A and the incorrect result of the B:

The A has been correctly Booleaned, but the B is missing the back. It ONLY does this with Text that I have converted to Meshes. If I attempt to Boolean, say, a Sphere it works fine. I don't think there's anything wrong with my text meshes because like I said whichever one I do first always works, so if I did the B first it would have been correct, and then the A would have been missing the back.

I've tried all sorts of things to try and resolve this, but nothing works. I even double checked to be sure it wasn't generating flipped backfaces that were hidden. Does anyone have any ideas what may be going on here?

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ Did you remove doubles on your Text Meshes, and Recalculate normals after each boolean operation ? $\endgroup$
    – zeffii
    Dec 29, 2015 at 18:23

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2
$\begingroup$

You need to 'Remove doubles' for you text objects (merge vertices on top of each other):

  1. Enter edit mode for the converted text object.
  2. Select everything.
  3. W> Remove Doubles.
  4. Repeat for each text object.

By default, when text objects are converted to a mesh they are left as separate parts, like the front of the text and the sides. This creates a messy boolean operation (or more messy than usual). Here, I applied the first boolean and you can see that it creates disconnected faces (the selected ones) meaning the second boolean doesn't work as expected:

enter image description here

Cleaning the text objects with 'Remove Doubles' will create a cleaner mesh, ready for the second boolean.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • $\begingroup$ Yeah, that was the first thing I tried. Didn't fix it. Remember, it works fine on the first Boolean operation, so there's nothing wrong with the mesh. But the 2nd time I apply a boolean to the same cube then things go wrong. I did find, however, that if I don't do the extrusion in the Text tool, but rather do the extrusion on the text mesh manually then everything works fine. $\endgroup$
    – BGreenstone
    Dec 29, 2015 at 22:33
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Yes, that's what I said, cleaning the text objects with 'Remove Doubles' allows the second boolean to execute correctly. When you add two boolean modifiers to a mesh only the first modifier in the 'stack' sees the original mesh, the second modifier sees the original mesh with the first boolean applied. If the first modifier creates a mess, the second fails. When the first is fixed, the second works. Feel free to upload your failing file to blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com and I will have a look at where it is going wrong. $\endgroup$
    – Ray Mairlot
    Dec 30, 2015 at 15:15

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .