Extracts mid-surfaces from a selection of surfaces or solids.
Syntax
*midsurface_extract_10
entity_type mark_id outbound_normals thickness_bound align_steps extract_by_comp
rerun_type stitch_tol_mode max_R_t_ratio reserved_1 reserved_2 max_thickness_ratio
min_thickness max_thickness mid_position reserved_3 reserved_4 reserved_5
new_or_curr_comp
Type
HyperMesh Tcl Modify Command
Description
This command extracts mid-surfaces from a selection of surfaces or solids.
Inputs
- entity_type
- The type of entity selected for mid-surface extraction. Valid values are surfaces and
solids.
- mark_id
- The ID of the mark containing the input entities.
- outbound_normals
- If entity_type is surfaces:
- -1 - If surfaces selected on mark_id form a closed solid (but
entity_type parameter is not set to solid). In this case the
surfaces will be re-oriented, if needed, to have the normals go outside the solid
they form.
- 0 - If the normals go inside the selected surfaces.
- 1 - If the normals go outside the selected surfaces.
- If entity_type is solids:
- 3 - The parameter must be set to this value.
- thickness_bound
- Limits on midsurface thickness:
- 0 - No limit. Max ratio set using max_thickness_ratio.
- 1 - User-defined thickness limits. Limits set using min_thickness
and max_thickness.
- align_steps
- Determines how steps are aligned for solids with discrete sections. This parameter
also determines whether any specified base surfaces are taken into account when
constructing the middle surface. If the values are 0, 1, or 2, the base surfaces are not
used. In order to take the base surfaces into account, the value should be increased by
3.
- 0 - Steps are not aligned at the thickness jumps (jumps maintained). Base surfaces
will not be used.
- 1 - Steps aligned at the thickness jumps. Mid-surface position set automatically. Base
surfaces will not be used.
- 2 - Steps aligned at the thickness jumps. Mid-surface position set using
mid_position. Base surfaces will not be used.
- 3- Steps are not aligned at the thickness jumps (jumps maintained). Base surfaces
specified by you will be taken into account.
- 4 - Steps aligned at the thickness jumps. Mid-surface position set automatically. Base
surfaces specified by you will be taken into account.
- 5 - Steps aligned at the thickness jumps. Mid-surface position set using
mid_position. Base surfaces specified by you will be taken into
account.
- extract_by_comp
- 0 - Extraction of the mid-surfaces can occur between any matching pair of the
surfaces.
- 1 - Extraction of the mid-surfaces can occur only between the surfaces that belong to
the same component.
- Adding 10 to this value will result in the input geometry components maintaining their
original transparency.
- Adding 100 to this value will result in creating plate information only, without
midsurfaces.
- rerun_type
- Used to specify one of the mid-surface extraction methods: offset, offset+planes,
offset+planes+sweeps or skin offset.
- 0 - Extracts the mid-surface using the "offset" method.
- 1 - Extracts the mid-surface using the "offset" method, and at the same time copies
the lines that collapsed into "Collapsed Lines" component.
- 2 - Extracts the mid-surface using the "offset" method, by collapsing only the lines
that are in the "Collapsed Lines" and "Just added Collapsed Lines" components.
Additionally, it moves lines from "Just added Collapsed Lines" component into "Collapsed
Lines" component.
- 3 - Extracts the mid-surface using the "offset+planes" method.
- 4 - Extracts the mid-surface using the "offset+planes" method, and at the same time
copies the lines that collapsed into "Collapsed Lines" component.
- 5 - Extracts the mid-surface using the "offset+planes" method, by collapsing only the
lines that are in the "Collapsed Lines" and "Just added Collapsed Lines" components.
Additionally, it moves lines from "Just added Collapsed Lines" component into "Collapsed
Lines" component.
- 6 - Extracts the mid-surface using the "skin offset" method.
- 9 - Extracts the mid-surface using the "offset+planes+sweeps" method.
- 10 - Extracts the mid-surface using the "offset+planes+sweeps" method, and at the same
time copies the lines that collapsed into "Collapsed Lines" component.
- 11 - Extracts the mid-surface using the "offset+planes+sweeps" method, by collapsing
only the lines that are in the "Collapsed Lines" and "Just added Collapsed Lines"
components. Additionally, it moves lines from "Just added Collapsed Lines" component
into "Collapsed Lines" component.
- stitch_tol_mode
- Defines the mode for performing mid-surface stitching. Valid values are:
- 0 - Final stitching of the mid-surfaces is performed using a local tolerance of 1/5 of
the local surface thickness (default in prior versions).
- 1 - Final stitching of the mid-surfaces is performed using the geometry cleanup
tolerance. This is recommended when extensive manual editing of the auto mid-surfacing
result is expected, because having "far" stitching may misrepresent the geometry of the
model and affect subsequent geometry operations.
- max_R_t_ratio
- This is a ratio between the fillet radius and plate thickness analyzed at T, X and
similar junctions. If the calculated ratio is greater than this parameter, the fillet
does not collapse. In previous releases the ratio was a default value of 2 and could not
be changed.
- reserved_1
- Reserved for future development. Value = 0.
- reserved_2
- Reserved for future development. Value = 0.
- max_thickness_ratio
- This is a ratio between a plate thickness found during the midsurfacing and the
minimum plate thickness found during the midsurfacing. If the ratio is exceeded the
corresponding midsurface will be ignored. The parameter is used when
thickness_bound is 0. It can be any real number > 1.
- min_thickness
- Sets the minimum plate thickness bound. This parameter is used when
thickness_bound is 1. It can be any real number ≥ 0.
- max_thickness
- Sets the maximum plate thickness bound. This parameter is used when
thickness_bound is 1. It can be any real number >
min_thickness.
- mid_position
- Sets the midsurface position for step alignment case when
align_steps is set to 2. This can be any number between 0 and
1.
- reserved_3
- Reserved for future development. Value = undefined.
- reserved_4
- Reserved for future development. Value = 0.
- reserved_5
- Reserved for future development. Value = 0.
- new_or_curr_comp
- 0 - Midsurface will be created in the current component.
- 1 - Midsurface will be created in a new component named "Middle Surface".
- -1 - Applies immediate sorting during midsurface extraction. Corresponds to a value of
0 for *sort_midsurfaces.
- -2 - Applies immediate sorting during midsurface extraction. Corresponds to a value of
1 for *sort_midsurfaces.
- -3 - Applies immediate sorting during midsurface extraction. Corresponds to a value of
2 for *sort_midsurfaces.
- -4 - Applies immediate sorting during midsurface extraction. Corresponds to a value of
3 for *sort_midsurfaces.
- -5 - Applies immediate sorting during midsurface extraction. Corresponds to a value of
4 for *sort_midsurfaces.
Example
To extract the midsurface of solids ID 5 through 7, no thickness bounds, align the steps at
0.39, only extract surfaces between the same component, max thickness ratio of 10, and
organize them into the "Middle Surface" component:
*createmark solids 1 5 6 7
*midsurface_extract_10 solids 1 3 0 2 1 0 0 2 10 0 0 0.39 undefined 0 0 1
Errors
Incorrect usage results in a
Tcl error. To detect
errors, you can use the
catch
command:
if { [ catch {command_name...} ] } {
# Handle error
}
Version History
10.0
2020 - Added new value 100 to extract_by_comp.