diff --git a/src/PolySetCGALEvaluator.cc b/src/PolySetCGALEvaluator.cc
index 6ff1e359..8e08e196 100644
--- a/src/PolySetCGALEvaluator.cc
+++ b/src/PolySetCGALEvaluator.cc
@@ -176,10 +176,16 @@ PolySet *PolySetCGALEvaluator::evaluatePolySet(const ProjectionNode &node)
 			}
 			catch (const CGAL::Failure_exception &e) {
 				PRINTB("CGAL error in projection node during bigbox intersection: %s", e.what());
-				sum.p3.reset( new CGAL_Nef_polyhedron3() );
+				sum.p3->clear();
 			}
 		}
 
+		if ( sum.p3->is_empty() ) {
+			CGAL::set_error_behaviour(old_behaviour);
+			PRINT("WARNING: projection() failed.");
+			return NULL;
+		}
+
 		// remove z coordinates to make CGAL_Nef_polyhedron2
 		log << OpenSCAD::svg_header( 480, 100000 ) << "\n";
 		try {
@@ -206,11 +212,6 @@ PolySet *PolySetCGALEvaluator::evaluatePolySet(const ProjectionNode &node)
 
 		CGAL::set_error_behaviour(old_behaviour);
 
-		if ( sum.p3->is_empty() ) {
-			PRINT("WARNING: projection() failed.");
-			return NULL;
-		}
-
 		// Extract polygons in the XY plane, ignoring all other polygons
 		// FIXME: If the polyhedron is really thin, there might be unwanted polygons
 		// in the XY plane, causing the resulting 2D polygon to be self-intersection