CompuServe Messages

Craig, We in fact do surface welding, aligning, and offsetting. This will work with any surface entity: 3D faces …3 & 4 sided Surface meshes (Rulesurfs, edgesurf, revsurf, etc) P-face meshes … these may include both 3-sided and 4-sided p-faces Exploded AME solids (just a collection of P-face meshes). For instance, you can to the following: Make a couple RULESURF's which share edges. Also on some other edges, add some hand drawn 3D faces, and a P-face mesh or 2. Run the SEDIT command, and with the Join option, "weld" all of these entities into a single mesh. During this proceedure, all redundant vertecies are removed and the faces are re-indexed (we also handle the "-" indexes for invisable edges correctly). Next, using the Align option, all the faces in this mesh are aligned with the "1st" face of the mesh such that all the surface normals are consistent. If the 1st face's normal was pointing in the wrong direction, a Reverse option simple reverses the connectivity (surface normal direction) for the mesh. If this mesh represents the outside or inside surface of a constant thickness part, then the SOFFSET command will generate the other surface (either inside or outside), and seal the edges if instructed. This new mesh's normals are also consistent with the previos one. We really can do these things … really… in not kidding .. <g> Ang