Help with Booleans

[Paul_Tylutke]

Hey everyone!

So, I was working on this lamp that I love, and I came across a huge issue when rendering it.

This is the lamp

And this is the render

I know that it has to do with the mesh, and the way I used the Boolean, but I was wondering if anyone has any tips or tricks to using booleans that don’t destroy the mesh. Granted, I also have a lot of other modifiers on this… Here’s some other reference images of the issues.

LookDev

Rendered

Edit Mode Geometry

As you can see, the boolean has deformed the mesh into a blob where the cutout is supposed to be…

This is a list of the modifiers on the model

Rendered - This boolean isn’t as bad, but the other one

So sometimes the booleans work fine, but sometimes they make it look horrible. I am currently just remodeling it and trying to box model it and model around the cutouts by hand, but it’s taking forever. I found this lamp on a youtube video and asked the guy if I could make it in 3d, so I want to send him a good picture of it as a thankyou. It’s a really cool lamp. But anyway, any advice or tips or tricks would be awesome. I know I will need to learn how to make this cutouts look better… I appreciate it!

[NP5]

Near impossible to see or know what Boolean where.

Whole working screenshots are much more help in almost all cases.

Booleans are frequently tricky. Sometimes just a tiny movement of the cutter item can make them work. They need or work more nicely I find with sufficient geometry to cut into, rather than a large open plane.

That said I suspect I would just not keep modifiers all un applied like that. That may not be best or smartest practice, but what are you saving polygons for on a pretty small model and scene? I use and apply booleans one at a time, fixing any odd connections and odd topology as I go.

Oh something simple. Are your cutters hidden in the rendering? Not just the workspace, lookdev?

[Paul_Tylutke]

That’s a good point… I will try applying the modifiers one at a time. I don’t know why I wasn’t applying them. And I’ll let you know after I try that what happens. And I wish it was as simple hiding them in rendering accidentally, but sadly it’s not.

[Paul_Tylutke]

Wow! You’re amazing! The very first modifier I applied, the solidify modifier. As soon as I applied it, it was fixed. Thank you so much. I guess sometimes I just need someone to tell me to stop being stupid. lol

[NP5]

Glad it worked.
People do say not to apply modifiers, Until you have to.
As it leaves options open in a non destructive way.
However Deciding when that ‘have to’ moment is can be variable!

Quite possibly reordering them might have worked also. Just moving the first modifier to be after the Booleans? There is probably a ‘correct’ order list out there somewhere.

[FedPete]

Booleans do not result mostly in clean meshes. Manual corrections are mostly needed.

Especially when applying subsurface and having Ngons.

This face is very problematic.

Try to remodel to have quads or tri’s.

[Paul_Tylutke]

Wow that is super informative. Thank you for taking the time to make that. That makes it make a lot more sense. Now I realize how important quads are. I should really find a class on topology… But I’m going to make them cleaner from now on knowing that.