Suggestion for Improving the Tube Shape – Making the Inner Diameter a True Hole

[WimSnor]

If this has already been mentioned somewhere, my apologies. I couldn't find it.

In one of my designs, I used two tubes to create a T-junction. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the inner diameter of one tube did not create an opening through the wall of the other tube. As a result, the liquid that was supposed to flow through the junction could not pass through.

It turned out that Tinkercad has the same issue. After doing some research on YouTube, I discovered that this is a known issue, and people have come up with various workarounds. Unfortunately, these solutions tend to be cumbersome, sometimes quite complicated, and time-consuming. Especially when the designs become more complex than a simple T-junction.

In my case, the simplest solution turned out to be replacing part of the tubes with a circle and a smaller circle inside it, with the smaller circle set to Hole. Quite a workaround for something that should be relatively straightforward!

My suggestion is therefore to add a checkbox to the Tube shape settings that would allow the inner diameter to be treated as a true hole when enabled. This would solve the problem and eliminate the need for all those complicated workarounds.

Of course, I have no idea whether this would be technically feasible to implement, so I'll leave that to the experts!

[henmedia]

@WimSnor Thanks for the suggestion, it was a good one. Tube and ring now have a switch in their properties, "Bore cuts as a hole when grouped". Once it is on, grouping cuts the bore like a hole, so two tubes in a T-junction open into each other and the liquid can pass. It is built and comes with the next update. Without the switch nothing changes.

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[WimSnor]

Thank you! That's really great that this is now possible.
I'll try it out as soon as the new version is available!

That will make a lot of complicated tutorials unnecessary, LOL!

[henmedia]

@WimSnor the bent tube's "Bore cuts as a hole when grouped" switch is out in 1.115.0: https://github.com/henmedia/layerling/releases/tag/v1.115.0

[WimSnor]

Hi, I'm afraid something may have gone wrong in the code somewhere.

The Bent Tube looks different now, and when you place one on the workplane, part of it is below the workplane. Part of the tube also seems to have a thicker wall.

Additionally, when you place two tubes together in a T-junction, enable the new feature, and then group them, the bores are no longer centered within the tubes. As a result, the bottom of the tube is open instead of closed because the bore is no longer centered.

I think a bug may have slipped in somewhere...

[henmedia]

@WimSnor thank you, you were right, and the picture you described made it easy to find. With the switch on, a bent tube is cut into the pipe and its opening when grouped, and the opening was placed one wall too low. That is why it cut the bottom of the pipe open in your T-junction. It now sits in the middle of the pipe again, lying, standing or tipped, and a new test checks that the wall stays closed. The fix comes with the next version.

On the other point: the bent tube itself did not change in 1.115.0, so I think what you saw was the same misplaced opening. If a bent tube still sits partly below the workplane or shows a thicker wall after the update, please send me a bug report (the link at the bottom of the page) with that design, and I'll look at it.

[henmedia]

@WimSnor the fix is out in 1.116.0: with "Bore cuts as a hole when grouped", the bent tube's opening sits in the middle of the pipe again, so a T-junction stays closed at the bottom. Reload the page or restart the installed app to get it.

[WimSnor]

I'll test it more thoroughly later (I'm a bit short on time at the moment), but it looks like everything has been completely fixed.

Thank you!