Joining multiple objects removing internal geometry

Question

I am fairly new to using Blender and I am having trouble performing a particular operation and could use some guidance. I have been creating complex objects by joining multiple overlapping duplicates of a base object. Say like a flower made out of a bunch petals. The only method I have found to quickly remove all internal geometry is to use a boolean modifier intersect+carve with a larger object such as a cube completely surrounding the object. However carve is no longer available in 2.8 and Bmesh is not producing the desired result.

Is there a different approach I can take to produce the same results?

Below is an example of before and after

With only two objects it is straightforward to do, but with 5+ all overlapping it becomes overwhelming.

Answer 1

Place the objects together where they will connect

Duplicate the outside object and place it on a different layer for later.

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Join both meshes

Go into edit mode, select the outer mesh as shown above, and hit ctrl-F. From the drop-down, choose "Intersect (Boolean)." Now the mesh which would be inside the joined mesh is deleted.

Now bring the other object which you moved to a different layer back, and join it to the other object using the Boolean Modifier, as shown above.

Hope that is the answer you needed!