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2 piece box mold with keys - I need help

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello everyone,

I am trying to make a 2 piece box mold of a 3d model I made. I’ve made a 1 piece box mold so I can do silicon or latex castings from it. But it’s kind of a pain to deal with. So I am trying to make a 2 piece box mold with keys.

What I have done is made a box roughly the size of the model, inserted the model and hollowed out the box so it leaves the impression of the model on the inside. Now I am trying to cut it in half, which I have and separated the 2 parts. But now when I try and close the holes, It closes all the holes making two separate boxes basically. I need to close the outer “seam” of the mold only. If that makes sense at all. Cause then I plan on inserting keys on the seam line of the mold so the two halves line up perfectly after they are printed.

Any help on this would be appreciated.

#2

Hello @PilcrowDesigns

I may not be visualizing your issue correctly. It would be helpful to see an illustration of what you’re trying to do.

However, your issue probably comes down to how you are cutting apart the two pieces of the mold. The way I approach situations like this–the most accurate way that I am aware of–is to use a two part Live Boolean operation. See attached illustration.

  1. Position a simple cube as a separate sub tool so that one of the planes intersects at the point you’d like to cut your mold. Switch on Live Boolean mode, and switch the re-mesh mode icon in its entry on the subtool list to “subtraction” mode. You can now preview the resulting piece. When satisfied, use the “Make Boolean Mesh” in the subtool menu in order to create an entirely new re-meshed tool in the tool palette.

  2. Again in your source boolean tool, switch the remesh mode for the cutting cube to “Intersection”. It will now cut away the other portion of the mesh. Use “make Boolean Mesh” again.

  3. Locate the first Boolean U-mesh tool in the tool palette and switch to it. Append the other half tool. They should line up perfectly.

moldcut

1 Like
#3

Thanks a bunch for this. I didn’t know about this until now and this is what I needed and it worked out great! I appreciate the help and quick reply. Thank you!