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Beta

These docs cover RhinoArtisan 7.0, which is still in beta. The contents are provisional: features and pages can still be added, changed or removed before the final release.

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Boolean Difference (RhinoArtisan)

Boolean Difference

ArtisanBooleanDifference subtracts one set of solids from another, like the standard Rhino command — with one decisive difference: the originals are not destroyed. Both the solids you keep and the cutters are hidden and kept in the document, and the result is baked into a group that remembers which objects went into it and what operation was applied.

That makes the difference editable. The cutter that hollows a signet, the gems that seat into a pavé — change any of them later, and rebuild the cut without modeling anything twice.

Steps

  • Run ArtisanBooleanDifference.
  • Select solids to keep — pick the solids or extrusions the metal stays in, and press Enter.
  • Select solids to subtract — pick the cutters and press Enter.
  • The result appears as a single grouped object, and all the originals are hidden.

The same object cannot be in both sets — the command checks and stops if it is.

Editing a boolean afterwards

  • ArtisanEdit on the result dismantles the boolean: the result is removed and the original operands come back, visible and editable. The group and its stored parameters stay behind.
  • Change whatever you need — move a cutter, resize the solid it cuts.
  • ArtisanBooleanUpdate rebuilds every dismantled boolean in the document at once. No selection is needed: it finds them by itself.

If an operand was recreated and its stored identity no longer matches anything in the document, Boolean Update asks you to reselect just that one object and remembers the new one.

Notes

  • Operands can be polysurfaces or extrusions; surfaces and meshes are not accepted.
  • The result inherits the layer and display attributes of the first object you selected.
  • If the difference fails — self-intersections, bad edges, a tolerance problem — the command says so and leaves your objects untouched.
  • The operation is recorded as a single undo step, and the result appears in the Outliner as an editable object.