topic Re: Failure combining solids due to overlapping edges in Inventor Forum

Failure combining solids due to overlapping edges

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 13:33:22 GMT

Hello,

I have been working on a project where I have been attempting to fix a library of models of boat hulls to make them "water-tight" for use in CFD. Unfortunately many of the models I am working with are, for lack of a better word, broken. There are a lot of complicated geometries involved created from various lofts and extrudes, and as a result, some of the solids aren't playing well with most of the 3D modeling commands or derive based functions. Many of the commands give me an error such as failed Booleans, and failure to produce meaningful results.

After a lot of confusion, I exported solids individually to STL files, and used the STL check function in 3DS max. As it turns out a lot adjacent faces have overlapping edges, creating a multiple or open edge condition.

I've had some success in converting the solids into surface bodies, and replacing the problem faces with free form faces and creating matched edge conditions (The multiple edge condition makes the patch command a nightmare). However, as I said, there is a lot of complex geometry on the outside of these hulls, and the free form approach isn't 100 % faithful to the original design.

I was wondering if there was any tool in Inventor that can diagnose and check solid bodies and identify problem geometry, and also if anyone has come across a similar problem and has a good fix.

Re: Failure combining solids due to overlapping edges

JDMather — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 13:42:20 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

1.... I exported solids individually to STL files, ...

2. I was wondering if there was any tool in Inventor that can diagnose and check solid bodies and identify problem geometry, ....

1. Big mistake - stl are useless in most cases.

2. Yes - Construction Environment and Repair Environment. (expert level experience)

Can you attach your file here?

Re: Failure combining solids due to overlapping edges

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 16:16:39 GMT

Unfortunately no, my employers will not allow me to post the file.

The only reason I was creating STL files was to use 3DS max to identify the location of the problem geometry so that I could identify the edges that needed fixing, and then continued to try and fix them in the .ipt file.

Also maybe this is a simple solution, but I don't see a construction environment or repair environment.

Re: Failure combining solids due to overlapping edges

blair — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 16:30:00 GMT

Look at Mesh Mixer:

http://www.meshmixer.com/

Re: Failure combining solids due to overlapping edges

JDMather — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 16:31:41 GMT

I have never heard of using 3DS Max as a tool for examining the quality of Inventor geometry (Inventor has the necessary tools built in).

The Construction Environment is hidden and must be enabled. (Application Options)

The Repair Environment can only be entered in certain ways.