Using Splines for Boolean Cuts
 
Doing the Boolean Cut.... sounds like a dance
Page 2
By now you should realize that all objects are made up of points, edges and faces no matter how big or complex it is. More complex simply means it has more faces. When we do a Boolean cut we are using these faces to slice edges. When a face passes through an edge, it will make a new point. Making the end object more complex. In the image to the right, I have cloned and converted the cylinder and cutter to editable meshes to illustrate. If I do a Boolean cut on the cylinder with this cutter, everywhere that a face of the cutter passes through an edge of the cylinders surface there will be a new point to contend with so I want to keep things as simple as possible. I can see that I want to end up with only adding 22 new points, the 16 from my rounded corners and 6 more where I am slicing edges on the cylinder. Lets get to it!
 
With the Cylinder selected click on the Create tab of the Command Panel, then on the menu drop down arrow and select Compound Objects.
 
Click on the Boolean button, then on the Reference button, drop down and click on the Cut and Refine buttons. Now go up and click on the Pick Operand B button. Click on the Select by Name icon on the Main Toolbar and select the cookie cutter object.
 
The cut is done! Hide the cookie cutter to see the cut better. Now for the cleanup.
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