Part's silhouette 4

[cilici]

Hello,

I need your imagination and skill for this one.

As per R22, there is a function for generating a solid's silhouette on a given plane. That's what I read, never actually use it.

At R19 level, I want to replicate this functionality: a solid's silhouette on a plane.

Could anyone please describe the steps to achieve that using any PD/GSD function? Please have in mind ANY geometry for the solid.

Thank you in advance,
Calin

 

[itsmyjob]

project the solid in a drawing view, then bring the view as a sketch in 3D ?

Eric N.
indocti discant et ament meminisse periti ​

 

[Costin Ruja]

Select all the faces of the solid
Extract the boundaries (keep all)
Join the boundaries (uncheck "check manifold")
Project the join on a plane (uncheck "nearest solution")

Another way to do it, I think

PS Calin, sa stii ca inca sunt in focuri cu cartusul.

Best regards,
Costin Ruja

 

[cilici]

Eric, Costin,

Thank you for your time.

Unfortunately, neither of these solutions create a silhouette. They create a projection of ALL the edges but all I want are the outer ones (not even talking about curved surfaces at this point, just the hard edges).

Thanks again,
Calin

 

[iscariot]

I think there was a function in a module to move a part and get the pathway as a separate solid. This pathway could be cut with a plane and the result should be the silhouette. I think the module is DMU space analysis but I don't have Catia to check. With PD and GSD only is quite tricky.

 

[itsmyjob]

so you have R19 and you want a function from R24...
Install R24, open the file, get your silhouette curve, export back the result curve to R19

That pathway solid you're talking is not a very nice geometry if made with DMU Fitting or Kinematics...

Eric N.
indocti discant et ament meminisse periti ​

 

[iscariot]

One more idea from my side.
You have one plane and one part.
Create a parallel plane so part will be in the middle, between planes.
Project somehow the part to both planes somehow, maybe as recommended by Eric and Costin.
Overlap the resulted elements from both planes and try to get the duplicated elements.
This duplicate elements (curve, lines etc.) should be exactly the silhouette if I am not mistaken.

Could this work?

@ itsmyyjob, I don't know how exact the silhouette should be so maybe it is not relevant how nice the geometry would be.

 

[itsmyjob]

from DMU FIT or KIN, get the trace, save as .model, open it in V5 you will have the junk geometry. Not sure you can use that.

Eric N.
indocti discant et ament meminisse periti ​

 

[cilici]

Hello again,

There are two more conditions I didn't put out there to avoid biases:
1. Creation of silhouette must be repeated through API.
2. MD2 license.

For this two reasons, Eric's solutions cannot work.

Now, let me detail what I currently do but it is not full-proof. It works for the types of geometries applicable to the application I'm developing, but I want to get as close as possible to Silhouette function in R22+. More details about this function are here.

So, my process is:
- create 4 out of 6 extremum point in 2 directions (the third orthogonal direction is the one normal to my PLANE);
- create parallel planes to the PLANE through those 4 points;
- intersect the planes with the extract of the entire body;
- create Near out of each Interesect using the corresponding point;
- project the Near on the PLANE;
- create Fill of the project;
- create a Trim and add consequently the 4 Fills.
- create the Boundary of the Trim.

This is the Silhouette in 99% of my cases.

There are many checks to be done on the way to make sure the Fills are not identical. Sometimes I throw a Join with Simplication mode on just to remove some folding edges and so on. I also have a fail-over method which involves a Mean Plane through those 4 points, then Intersect and Project.

The reason I'm describing it is to give you a better idea of the type of solutions I am expecting.

Thanks again,
Calin