Combine/Merge/Move Two Objects

[Mel3]

I’m trying to combine/move two objects so that I can export them as one STL. “object”.
I thought this would be simple to do but it’s proving to be more challenging than expected.

I’m having a great deal of trouble moving them about in space so that they 1)touch and 2) are oriented correctly.
Initially, I brought in both of the STL files, converted them to solids, selected the face on each of them that I wanted joined to the other, and then clicked on the Boolean tool from both the part workbench and part design workbench. Nothing visually changed.

Next I brought in both STL files and tried using the Data-Property-Placement dialogue box on the left. I got them to be closer together but I don’t know how to tell FreeCAD to rotate a given object around its own axis (or how to set up an axis to tell it to rotate around).

How do I do this and/or is there a better way to go about moving/joining two objects?

FreeCAD File:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=10dAGI ... g66bKVXa7x

Original STL Files:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=19rQMD ... 5gcj2nx9uZ
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GuE5b ... JULPTnD4o0

OS: Windows 8.1
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.18.16117 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-18
Hash: dbb4cc6415bac848a294f03b80f65e888d531742
Python version: 3.6.6
Qt version: 5.6.2
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: English/UnitedStates (en_US)

[kisolre]

Please attach files that are not over the 5files/1MB limit directly to your post. There is attachment tab under the submit button or drag them over the input area.

[chrisb]

A boolean union does not move any objects, it makes from two or more objects a single one. If they overlap new edges are calculated. If you want to move objects, try Manipulator workbench addon or the Draft snapping tools.

[Mel3]

Please attach files that are not over the 5files/1MB limit directly to your post. There is attachment tab under the submit button or drag them over the input area.

Only one of the three files is under 1MB (attached here now).

Barrel2.stl

(703.74 KiB) Downloaded 54 times

[Mel3]

A boolean union does not move any objects, it makes from two or more objects a single one. If they overlap new edges are calculated. If you want to move objects, try Manipulator workbench addon or the Draft snapping tools.

Thank you! The Manipulator workbench add on does exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.
It's all good now.

[TheMarkster]

It looks like Barrel2 has flipped normals. These are the black faces. If you use flip normals menu item in Mesh Design workbench you will see. Unfortunately, I don't know how to harmonize them so they are all facing the right direction. The harmonize normals menu tool doesn't seem to work. In addition to the flipped normals the Anaylize and repair tool shows additional defects. In short, the mesh is invalid.

You can try downloading them again. Convert all objects to solid via Part menu -> create shape from mesh (which I did, but I didn't show that part). Then you can select individual points for use with the placement task dialog to align the 2 objects.

phpBB [video]

When you select 2 points, then click selected points, FreeCAD does 2 things: 1) it measures the distance between the 2 points, and 2) it sets up a custom axis that can be used with the apply axial button to move the object along that axis. The distance is shown in the report view where it can be copy/pasted. Or you can used Shift + selected points to get it automatically copied to your clipboard. I think we should add a Ctrl+Shift+Selected points option to automatically copy the distance to the axial spinbox with 2 selected points and copy the angle to the angle spinbox with 3 selected points.

Also, when you select 2 points you can rotate the object on that axis. It can be any 2 points on the same edge, either both end points or an endpoint and some other random point along the edge.

Key thing to remember when doing this (which I seem to always forget) is to use the apply changes checkbox and always click Apply button after each move. If you forget to apply the move, then the next move will probably move the object in an unexpected position.