Body Feature in SE

[KrissGTO]

Hi all,
I am kinda stuck and I hope people would help me.
As the title says, it's about "Body Feature" in Solid Edge.

I have opened a *.STL file with it, on the left side it's saying it's a body feature, but what really interests me is to modify it (protrusion, cutout,...), really editing it. In my situation, i can't. The buttons are ghosts...
What can I do to turn it into a real part able to be modified?

thanks in advance!

K.

 

[swertel]

A body feature is just a "dumb-solid." There are no features to edit. You can use the Synchronous tools to modify the geometry or add new features to it. You can also use the history based direct-editing (modify) tools.

In your case, since the buttons are not active, I have reason to suspect that the body feature you have imported is not a water-tight solid. Instead, it is just a collection of faces.

START BY RIGHT CLICKING ON THE BODY FEATURE AND SELECTING MAKE BASE FEATURE.

Let me know if that works for you.

--Scott

http://www.wertel.pro

 

[KrissGTO]

Ok, I see.
And indeed, it is a collection of faces.

When I RightClick on the body feature, I don't have your "make base feature" option...

(Solid Edge v20)

 

[KrissGTO]

I also know there's the Thicken command in the Features toolbar.. but even this is ghost...
Does anyone have an idea of how to turn a "body feature" into a solid that can be modified?

Or does anyone have a plane (Falcon 7X) he/she did on Solid Edge or equivalent? (no commercial use at all)

 

[swertel]

If you can't make it a base feature, it is because the faces to not connect to make a "water-tight" solid. There are errors in the geometry, but probably just slivers so you can't see them.

If you still have the original file that you imported, you can try to adjust your import options to see if the file can be healed and stitched.

Otherwise, (it's been a while since I've used v20) go to your surfacing tools. There should be a function that highlights free edges. Use that tool and start manually trimming/extending surfaces until you no longer have any free edges. This will make a water-tight solid that you can convert to a base feature. Adjusting the import options does this for you. You'll have to decide which method is quicker: manual edits or trial-and-error importing.

--Scott

http://www.wertel.pro

 

[kpalexan]

STL files contain only facet data. Facets are just triangular (typically) shapes connected at their endpoints to define the general shape of an object.

Set your display shading to one of the wireframe types and you will see the facets (triangles).

To my knowledge, a facet body cannot be converted into a solid body ... at least not with Solid Edge.

In order to create a solid, you must have some type of B-Rep data in the file to be converted. STL does not contain any B-Rep data.

Kevin