Solid Edit Panel

Location: Geom page.

For example, you can trim and/or split solids, as well as merge solids into a single entity using the Solid Edit panel.

Trim with Nodes Subpanel

Use the Trim with Nodes subpanel to trim solids based on nodes that you select. The nodes must define an enclosed cross-sectional surface, but this surface need not be planar.

Multiple solids can be trimmed using the same set of nodes; each solid is trimmed according to the surface defined by those nodes, provided that this surface intersects each solid. However, Engineering Solutions only creates new surfaces within the solids. For example, if your nodes define a large plane that intersects two cubes, Engineering Solutions will only create surfaces within the cubes (and thus trim them). It will not create a single surface filling the entire area enclosed by the nodes.

Clicking trim will trim the selected solids along the 2D surface bounded by the nodes or points that you selected. Gaps between solids do not acquire a surface.

Option	Action
solids / surfs selector	Choose a method for selecting solids. solids Select each solid individually. surfs Select each solid by choosing one of its surface faces.
nodes list / points selector	Choose a method for defining your 2D cutting plane (or non-planar surface). node list Select three or more nodes from FE mesh to define your desired cut. point list Select the points from model geometry that enclose the cut.
extend trimmer	Extend the trimming operation beyond the boundaries of the nodes, or lines that you used to define it.

Trim with Lines Subpanel

Use the Trim with Lines subpanel to select lines from your model to define the edges of a trim plane.

Three different methods of line-based trimming exist on this panel, separated into three different columns.

Cut Lines: Create a cut through the solid along a line that you draw.
Bounding Lines: Choose lines from the model geometry that define a plane or other 2D area. The solid is then cut along this plane.
Sweep Lines: Select lines in your model and then extending those lines to create 2D cutting surfaces. Thus, you can "sweep" the lines through your model, either along a specified vector or to one or more end points, to define the cuts.

Note: The angle of the cut depends on the viewing angle of the model; the cut line is extended directly back into the viewing area, as if the line were actually the edge of a plane that is perfectly edge-on relative to your viewpoint. In other words, the cut is normal to your monitor screen, rather than to any surfaces across which you might have dragged the cut line.

Option	Action
with cut line: solids selector	Choose a method for selecting solids. solids Select the individual solid(s). surfs Select the surface(s) associated with the solid. The boundaries of each surface highlight, even though the surfaces themselves are not selected. Note: Regardless of the method, you are still selecting solid entities to trim.
drag a cut line	Draw a cut line. Figure 5.
smooth line	Create a curved line that passes through the points you specify. Figure 6.
close line	Create a closed loop, automatically connecting the first and last points that you specify. Figure 7.
with bounding lines: solids selector	Choose a method for selecting solids. solids Select the individual solid(s). surfs Select the surface(s) associated with the solid. The boundaries of each surface highlight, even though the surfaces themselves are not selected. Note: Regardless of the method, you are still selecting solid entities to trim.
with bounding lines:lines selector	Select the lines in your model that define the desired cutting plane. Figure 8. Lines Selected. The top and bottom lines are selected (white). Figure 9. Solid Split. The selected solids are split along the plane bounded by the chosen lines.
with bounding lines: extend trimmer	Extend the trimming operation beyond the boundaries of the nodes, or lines that you used to define it.
with sweep lines: solids selector	Choose a method for selecting solids. solids Select the individual solid(s). surfs Select the surface(s) associated with the solid. The boundaries of each surface highlight, even though the surfaces themselves are not selected. Note: Regardless of the method, you are still selecting solid entities to trim.
with sweep lines:lines selector	Select the lines to sweep. These lines, plus their destination, determine the shape and orientation of the cut. Click trim. Engineering Solutions sweeps the selected line(s) along the specified vector or through the specified nodes, splitting the entity along this path (which is frequently not planar when using "end" nodes). Figure 10. Sweep All Enabled. Surfaces sweep past the nodes.
with sweep lines:sweep to	Choose between 1 or 2 end nodes or sweeping by a vector.
with sweep lines:Sweep all / Option field / N2 - N1	sweep all Sweep lines completely through the selected solids. input field Specify how far to sweep in the length field. N1-N2 Sweep the distance between the N1 and N2 nodes selected using the plane and vector selector. Figure 11. With Sweep Lines Set to N2 - N1. The line behind the cylinder is selected, and the green and blue nodes are N1 and N2.

Trim with Plane/Surf Subpanel

Use the Trim with Plane/Surf subpanel to trim solid geometries using a plane or other trimming surface.

Sometimes a single solid entity has feature lines that could be extended into surfaces, thereby splitting the entity into two different solids. This can be advantageous when trying to mesh solids that have complex shapes.

This process uses the *body_splitmerge_with_plane command or *trim_solids_by_surfaces command, as appropriate.

Option	Action
with plane: solids / surfs	Select the entities to trim. If you pick surfaces, the related solids are selected. When trim with planes is enabled, a fill cuts mode is turned on and used. Fill cuts is a special mode of surface trimming. A virtual trimmer surface is created and used to calculate and create new edges on selected surfaces. An attempt is made to insert pieces of this trimmer surface into the body when trimming of the trimmer itself by selected surfaces creates closed loops and thus cuts off those pieces. This is used to simulate solid trimming in cases when you cannot, or do not want to, create solids, but still wants to make solid-like cuts. This mode is not intended when selected surfaces are solid surfaces themselves. When attempting to insert pieces of a trimmer surface into a solid body, you may also need to manually select other surfaces in order to avoid topologically invalid results. If you do not make this selection completely correctly, the expected result will be undefined.
with plane:	Choose a method for defining your cutting plane. x-axis, y-axis, z-axis, vector Creates the cutting plane normal to that axis or vector. You must select a node in your model for a base point to indicate at what point in the model the cutting plane intersects the chosen axis or vector. N1, N2, N3 Select three nodes to define the cutting plane. A base node is not necessary. x-edge Click an edge of the solid to draw a planar manipulator normal to (and centered around) that edge. Figure 13. Change the dimensions of the manipulator by left-clicking-and-dragging the gold handles (this allows you to avoid accidentally trimming additional parts). Reposition the manipulator along the length of the edge by dragging the white centroid.
with surfs: solids / surfs (switch)	Choose a method for selecting solids. solids Select the individual solid(s). surfs Select the surface(s) associated with the solid. The boundaries of each surface highlight, even though the surfaces themselves are not selected. Note: Regardless of the method, you are still selecting solid entities to trim. Figure 14. Selected Solid. The entire selected structure is a single solid.
with surfs: surfs (standalone selector)	Use the surfs selector to select surfaces to extend. Figure 15. Solid Selected. The outer curve of the cylinder is selected. Figure 16. Solid Split. When you click trim, the cylindrical surface extends to split the solid.
with surfs: extend trimmer	Extend the trimming operation beyond the boundaries of the input surface when the surface is not part of any selected solid. If the input surface is part of a selected solid, the trimmer is always extended in order for the operation to be relevant, regardless of the status of this option in the application.

Merge Subpanel

Use the Merge subpanel to join solid entities that are currently separated by a narrow gap.

You can use this feature to combine solids that are currently separated by a surface (shown in yellow).

Note: The intervening faces of the solids do not disappear completely; instead they become a single, shared face rather than two separate faces.

You can merge solids in two ways: either select solids to merge, or select intervening surfaces to remove.

This process uses the *solid_untrim command or the *solid_untrim command, as appropriate.

Option	Action
to be merged: solids	Select the solids to merge.
to be merged: remove scratches	If one or more faces of your model include scratches (surface features on the face which do not completely divide the face), enable remove scratches to remove them during the merge process.
merge by removal: surfs	Select the surfaces to remove.

Detach Subpanel

Use the Detach subpanel to detach (separate) a selected solid from neighboring solids with which it shares one or more common faces (drawn in yellow).

The shared/partition faces between the selected solids and the surrounding solids will be duplicated to become bounding faces of the separated solids. The partitioning faces within the selection will be maintained after they are detached from the rest of the model.

Use the solids selector to select solids to detach from each other.

Boolean Subpanel

Use the Boolean subpanel to perform complex trimming and merging operations, such as trimming a pair of intersecting solids down to only the portions of them that coincide.

You can perform Boolean operations in a simple mode or advanced mode. In both cases, the operation combines the solids according to your specifications. However, the advanced mode also allows you to decide which internal intersection surfaces to keep.

Note: Each of the examples shown in this subpanel help use the same base model: two cylinders, the smaller of which is partially buried within the larger one along a shared axis. Whenever the help refers to solid groups A and B, the larger cylinder is group A while the smaller one is group B. (The terms "group A" and "group B" are used because each group can contain more than one solid, even though the simplified illustrations used here contain only one solid per group.)

Option	Action
simple (combine all)	Perform a simple combination of solids.
advanced	Perform a complex boolean operation.
A: solids	Select one group of solids (usually the ones which you want to add to or subtract from).
B: solids	Select the other group of solids (usually the ones that you wish to modify the ones in group A).
swap A and B	Invert the selection of A and B.
operation:	Choose the type of Boolean operation to perform. Simple Operations union Combine multiple solids into a single solid. Figure 20. intersection Keep only the coincident parts of a group of solids, that is only the portions of each solid that occupy the same space. The result is combined into a single solid, and everything that is not coincident is discarded. Figure 21. removal Remove coincident pieces of solids from other solids. For example, a cylinder partially buried in another solid can be removed in such a way that it leaves a cylindrical recess in the other solid. Figure 22. You can also remove common parts, similar to the intersection option. The operation concerns shared portions of solids. However, instead of keeping the shared portions and deleting the rest, this option would remove the shared portions and retain the rest. cuts Similar to the removal method, except that it retains one of the solids. The cut option creates the cylindrical recess in the other solid, but retains the cylinder, creating a cylindrical separating surface (shown in yellow) between the two solids. Figure 23. Advanced Operations A+B (keep all parts) Combine two solids into a single solid, and merge shared portions. A*B (keep common parts) Retain overlapping portions of the selected solids, and delete the rest of each chosen solid. A-B (del B parts) Delete B solids and the portions of A that they share, and retain empty spaces in A where B used to intersect it. A^B (del common parts) Delete the portions of A and B that occupy the same space, and retain any portions of each group that do not overlap. A (keep A parts) Delete everything except for the solids specified in group A. Retain and highlight the surfaces to indicate the original overlap with B. Do not remove anything from group A. Note: Advanced operations, except for A (keep A parts), cannot be performed without using one of the combine through options.
combine through:	The effects of these options depend on the operation performed, and not all options are available for every operation. Effect for A+B (keep all parts) none Do not remove intersection surfaces. Figure 24. Example: None. None of the intersection surfaces are removed. all internal faces Remove all of the surfaces inside the solids at their intersection. Figure 25. Example: All Internal Faces. All of the intersection surfaces have been removed. all AB faces Remove only the surfaces that occur where the A and B groups touch. This means that other, pre-existing surfaces that pass through A and B will not be removed. Figure 26. Example: All AB Faces. A third solid has created internal surfaces through the area where A and B combine, but only the surfaces specific to the intersection of A and B are removed. AB faces in B (B cuts A) Remove the surfaces that lie inside of B and occur where A and B touch. Figure 27. Example: AB Faces in B (B Cuts A). The intersection surfaces inside B are removed, but the external surface remain. Effect for A*B (keep common parts) Note: Only applies to pre-existing internal surfaces, not to the intersection surfaces of the A and B groups. Figure 28. none Do not remove intersection surfaces. Figure 29. all internal faces Remove all of the surfaces inside the intersection of the solids. Figure 30. Effect for A-B (del B parts) Note: Only applies to pre-existing internal faces, not the intersection surfaces of the A and B groups. Figure 31. none Do not remove the intersecting surfaces inside of A. Figure 32. all internal faces Remove all of the surfaces inside the intersection of the solids. Figure 33. Effect for A^B (del common parts) Note: Only applies to pre-existing internal surfaces, not the intersection surfaces of A and B groups. Figure 34. none Do not remove the internal surfaces. Figure 35. all internal faces Remove all of the internal surfaces. Figure 36. Effect for A (keep A parts) There are no combine through options for A (keep A parts). Delete everything except for the solids specified in group A. Retain and highlight the surfaces that indicate the original overlap with B. Do not remove anything from group A. Figure 37.