Ah, you're using 2012, I'm still on 2011, so they must have added that functionality in. Good to know!by PomeroyB - General
You, unfortunately, have to edit in holes for bolts and the like at the part level. I wish Solidworks could have a feature that allows you cut a hole through multiple parts in an assembly, as it would simplify a lot of things, but I haven't seen it yet. Also, when making bolts, it is usually unnecessary to model the threads and whatnot. Just note the size of the bolt and use a simple model as aby PomeroyB - General
Hollowing out parts almost always involves the shell feature. You can "fake" the shell feature by using a cut extrude into the area you want, which takes longer, but gives you a bit more control. If you are using two parts, however, you should look into making assemblies instead of a single part.by PomeroyB - General
Ah. Your problem is that though the sides are two different bodies, they came out of 1 sketch, and are, therefore, 1 feature. Get rid of the mirrored part of the sketch, and just do half the ladder. I edited my post above to be more descriptive, but since you'll no longer have both sides, I'll correct it here. Have one half of the ladder side done. Sketch the rung on the right plane as you haveby PomeroyB - General
You'll have to make a new reference plane, or use the front, right, or top plane. You can only extrude normal to the plane you are sketching on. EDIT: To help in your specific situation, try to get a plane that is in the middle of your ladder sides that is straight up and down. You can do this by either selecting a default plane (Which is probably the right plane), or by creating your new planeby PomeroyB - General
Remove the vertical constraints you have on your lines before you input the dimensions.by PomeroyB - General
Dark alchemist, you should put up a paint drawing giving some rough dimensions. I can't seem to visualize what you are trying to explain, Dad911 seemed to show you exactly what you are asking for (A ladder with the two sides slanted inwards), so why not just use his method?by PomeroyB - General
Very cool, Simba! Are you running it through an extruder with a hobbed bolt? Does the 400% stretch affect the way it is pulled through?by PomeroyB - General
MattMoses - I've seen people try and have tried myself to make molds with silicon caulk, and the molds created are far inferior quality (in terms of air bubbles and mold strength) to ones created with a molding rubber. My concern with printing caulk would be molds breakage (The bouncy ball/sphere that is on that page has some breakage in the final pictures, and that is after only one pull). Havinby PomeroyB - General
I normally use rubbers with a durometer of between 25A and 40A when moldmaking (Or between a rubber band material and a door seal material), so something with the hardness of an eraser would be pretty good. I'm interested in doing exactly what you said; printing out molds to then cast directly into. Right now the workflow is to print the piece, mold it, and then cast it. Being able to print flexiby PomeroyB - General
I would be happy to test some filament as well! A rubbery material would be very nice for printing out more complex one piece molds.by PomeroyB - General
Hey, all, my name is Brandon, and I'm part of the WOOF group that built this printer, which we affectionately call Big Red. Big Red does indeed extrude the shredded plastic directly. A recycling place by the name of ScrapBlasters helped us grind the jugs down to flakes that are about 1/4 to 1/8 of a centimeter in area. This flakes were poured into a hopper, and an auger pushed them through to thby PomeroyB - General