ACAD and Form Z hybrid model through magix

For this particular project I took a building that was originally drawn in ACAD 2007 and then heavily edited in Form Z. I need to update an old version of a building to its new drawing set. The changes included adding and removing floors, a new roof, and some other detail augmentation.

The 3D modeling was pretty strait forward and was done with 2D microstation files that were imported and aligned in form Z. I have found that the stl export form form Z can sometimes omit geometry that was not originally created in form z. I exported a .3ds file and used a third party 3D file translation software to convert the .3ds to .STL format for use in magix.

The 3D geometry in formZ was drawn solid so i knew i had a shot at making the part solid with out using a resurfacing software. How ever i did run the part through CADspan resurfacing software in case i could not get the part to go in magix alone.

I basically opted to try to take the part through magix to increase my personal working knowledge of magix. Although it took me about 3 hrs to make the part printable in magix and only 30 min to make it printable using CADspan.

One of the biggest hurdles in magix is removing interior shells. this particular part is about 20"x4" so i knew that it was going to need to be hollowed before going into the printer. With out a solid part you can not successfully hollow it in magix. I used a method of removing the interior shells by a repeated unify command paired with manual removal of the physical interior shell triangles. i found the expand selection tool to be helpful when select interior shells. you always have to be careful that you never delete triangles that appear on the exterior and interior of the model. Sure enough my persistence paid off and i was able to make the part solid.

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