Cutting heart shape in a mesh

Question

I am new to blender and have been having issues with something I thought is relatively simple.

I tried looking for answers to this but could not find anything that can help me.

Basically, I followed a video to create a "simple" heart shape mesh using 2 cylinders and a cube I had combined them into a single shape, removing the overlapping part with Boolean modifier.

However, when I tried to use it to cut the shape into a cube, I can't get it to work properly.

I noticed that the heart mesh has the sides of the cube connecting to the half cylinders have multiple faces etc. But the model appears to be air tight.

Can I get some suggestion as to the easier to go about doing this or fixing the issue I am having?

Any pointers will be very much appreciated.

p.s. I wanted to upload the heart mesh I have but I don't know how - I am new to this forum too.

Edit: Here is the example of what I am trying to do.

I wanted to create an mesh (in this case a heart) as follows:

Then use it to cut into another mesh as follows:

Boolean does not work as expected even if I tried making the cut using Boolean modifiers the cube first, then the cylinders separately one at a time.

The tried various combinations of combining the heart mesh, playing around with the mesh, applying the mesh as separate components etc but cannot get Boolean modifier to work.

What would be the best way to accomplish something like this or a cut through? I know it works for simple shapes but not for primitive shapes.

Thanks again.

Edit: Here is the heart mess sample for cutting. Thanks.

Answer 1

Your specific problem (based on your blend file) is a faulty heart mesh. If you press z to see the wireframe mode and this will become obvious. You need to have a mesh that does not contain inner geometry or walls, or double edges/vertices, which this mesh contains both. Unfortunately the tutorial and method you were following to create the heart is "simple", but rather faulty and bound to get you into trouble in the future.

These mesh issues caused an inaccurate polygon in the cutout, which could be fixed fairly easily.

You could also clean up your cutout mesh, but it's not worth the work. I recommend making a more accurate and stable mesh, using the following steps:

1. Create a cylinder (shift+a).
2. Go to edit mode (tab).
3. Turn on proportional editing o, and change the mode to sharp.
4. Select the top, center vertices, and scroll the mouse wheel while grabbing them (g) until you have the desired result.
5. Do the same for the bottom.

Here is an animation demonstrating the process.

To perform the cut, use the following steps:

Add a boolean modifier and set it to difference.

1. Select the mesh which needs the hole in it. (not the mesh to make the hole!)

2. Go to the modifiers tab and add a boolean modifier.

3. Set the type to difference, and the object to the shape to make the hole (your heart shape).

4. Apply the modifier.

5. Select and delete the heart shape (or just move it away).

There now should be a heart shaped hole in the mesh.

If you want another option, enter edit mode (tab), add a little more geometry (ctrl+r for loop cut) and use the cut out tool (k) to manually cut out the geometry. Before doing this you will want to switch to orthographic view (numpad 5) and top view (numpad 7) to get the proper cuts. Then disable limit selection to visible (see image) so it will cut all the way through the mesh, and click where you would like to cut. When you are done, press enter to finish the cut. If you would like to cancel push esc. I hope this helps.

Here is my blend file.