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Since I'm still learning, I tend to figure out most by myself. For days now I'm failing at performing some boolean operations that I need for my research in pediatric heart surgery:

I've attached a file for you where you'll find:

  1. A model of the blood-filled structures of a heart.
  2. The surrounding shape of the heart muscle

What I'm trying to achieve is to carve Model 1 out of Model 2, then to join Model 1 + 2 and then to thicken the walls of Model 1 where it's not touching Model 2 by 1mm to create the wall of the blood vessels. And finally to print the model. At the end the now closed ends of the vessels should be cut open to enter the interior with surgical instruments.

I've tried all imaginable possibilities by now but end up always with a huge mess. Meshmixer doesn't help much as well.

Anyone out there that doesn't mind explaining me how to do that properly?

Thanks a lot!

https://pasteall.org/blend/b39ff13400874d408795da0dc9afe454

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2 Answers 2

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  • Duplicate the blood vessel object and then hide it by pressing H (This will used later). Select the unhidden blood vessel object and go into Edit Mode. Select all vertices by pressing A, press Alt+S to Shrink/Fatten (This is different to normal scaling) and press 1 to fatten by 1m. (This is actually fattening by 1m in this case because the unit scale is off my 1000x, so 1m is actually 1mm).

  • Add a Boolean modifier on the blood vessel, set it to Union, select the muscle object. Set Solver to fast.

enter image description here

  • Unhide the extra blood vessel object. Select it and go into edit mode. Select the vertices near the ends of the blood vessels where you want the holes to be and pull them through the fattened mesh. Repeat for all places you need holes.

enter image description here enter image description here

  • Select the fattened mesh with the Boolean modifier on it. Add another Boolean set to Difference. Select Fast as the Solver. Select the smaller blood vessel object as Object. The object with the modifier stack can now be exported and sliced for printing. Make sure when exporting, you have only this object selected and have the Selection Only and Apply Modifiers options selected in the export menu.

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ very nice animation benus! $\endgroup$
    – Chris
    Commented Jan 8, 2022 at 4:33
  • $\begingroup$ That's actually down to the ChituBox slicer, if anyone was wondering. $\endgroup$
    – Benus
    Commented Jan 8, 2022 at 5:08
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what you need to do is start by remeshing both objects with the smooth and smooth shading option on. Then do the boolean difference. then take the object you want to make hollow and put the solidify modifier on it. now delete the faces which u dont want like the blood vessels that are covered.

add a glass shader

here u go

https://pasteall.org/media/8/a/8ad4c7264c55ac5784d421a42541f44f.blend

hopefully i understood u correctly. if you need more help write me an email. [email protected]

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