Converting Mesh to Solid?

I am designing a new Weather-Proof Camera housing today at work that is to be mounted on a vehicle. I started modeling it as a solid because i eventually have to make nc code and machine it which made the details easier, but making the outside surface that i wanted wasnt really working for me as a solid so i made some guides and made a mesh surface. I know 07+ has surface to solid and solid to surface but im not 100% sure how to use it. Also when i try to used the thicken command(a last resort) it wont let me thicken a mesh surface.

any input?

Thanks in advance

Check the CADTutor AutoLISP Archive for a routine called Mesh-to-Solid. It works.

Found It! now i just have to figure out autoLisp:)

Thanks ReMark. Ill post the results when i get it to work.

There shouldn't be anything to figure out. Just follow the instructions. I used it to make a semi-hemispherical dome.

the autolisp worked great! just had to make sure my ucs was oriented so the Z direction was correct. I did have one problem with it. I copied the text and saved it as MeshToSolid.lsp and autocad wouldnt recognize the name. It wasnt until i used m2s.lsp that it worked.

The routine's actually name usually appears after the letters defun:

Glad to hear it worked for you. Another day, another happy customer.

ill try to post a pic of what i was working with later, i showed it to my boss and he said to make it more organic, more wild. He told me i had free reign, lets see what happens;)

More organic and he gave you free reign? It must be your lucky day! Can't wait to see what you come up with. Do they have a name picked out already? I suggest Manta.

i didnt have time to really put any pics together as i didnt really get a shape i was happy with(after about 6 iterations) not to mention i stayed an hour late. This was the general mesh surface i ended up with at 5 today.

it looks a little funny at the moment because i didnt convert this version to a solid yet so i havent been able to smooth out the "fins"on the back edge without adding a few more patches.

and i didnt have much time to play with render so thats not helping either:) but using the autolisp sure makes the rest of the design much easier since i have some fairly intricate pocketing to do. Hopefully ill get this done in the next week or so(to prototype) and ill post pics of the design and final part in the showcase area.

thanks for the help ReMark!

You're welcomed shift1313. Thanks for posting the pics. Looking forward to seeing how it continues to evolve.

after about 5 more renditions im getting closer to an actual design thanks to the mesh2solid expanding my options.

It has a little bit of shape to it but not so much that i cant machine it within reason.

also i went ahead and changed the surftab1 and surftab2 up to 10 from the factory 6 to give more gradual definition to the shape. Once its converted to a solid I will be able to fillet the back and front corners which should be easier than surface modeling it but i may try both ways.

Thanks again for putting me onto the autolisp command. I have found several others on this forum that have/will prove to be useful.

i just thought i would update this thread. I ended up switching over to unigraphics to model this part because of its surface modeling capabilities. The part took me a few minutes to draw(and make solid) I just couldnt get acad to do what i wanted with the time i put into it.

this picture isnt a solid but the process in UGS, you only have to close the surface with other surfaces and SEW them together. very simple and quick. The really nice thing is i can go back at any time and pull/push the splines around to modify the shape.

Coming along quite well. Thanks for the update.

i had to move on to the rear housing because they cant tell me which camera they are using yet(hard to make a housing without knowing the camera). The rear is nothing special, just a block:)

i had a little time today so worked out a plastic prototype of the housing .

sorry the pics are so blurry. its full scale so about 3" x 3" x 5"

Dude that's cool! How did you form it?

cnc mill. I took my UGS part file into mastercam, made an NC file for it and machined it. The machining took about 2hrs. I was just interested to see how well the finish would be since these will be aluminum and powdercoated. I did a flow analysis on it last week to check for high pressure zones and how air would flow over it. Ill scan in an image or two from the report( dont have a digital copy at home)

this is a fluid temp(first one, fluid being air) and a velocity. Because of the concavity of the shape it speeds up at that red point. I tested this in 120mph condition and i think the velocity at that point was around 300mph or so:)

im really close to finishing this design and i did a few renders today with a glass material to see the inner workings of the housing thought i would share them.

WOW! That is extremely impressive work!