Solids to surface

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I need to convert an assembly of solids to a surface model, containing only centered faces. E.g a plate with thickness of 20mm needs to be represented only with an eqal sized face with thickness 0 in center of the former plate.

Is there a solution for this problem?

A

[JDMather · Accepted solution]

Two ways

Find Thin Bodies and/or Midsurface is the easiest.

Midplane Shell

or Offset Surface

[swalton]

I know that the FEA module in Inventor Pro can flatten plates to 2D mid-planes for analysis, but I don't think there is a way to export them for use in other software.

I expect you will have to use several manual operations to make and export what you need. 

I think you can make a surface in the parent part and derive it but not the solid body into a new part.  You may have to make a new assembly with the surface parts.

[Anonymous]

Thank you!

Midsurface worked out just fine. If there only was a way to export the thinned model:( Is that excluded in the 2017 Inventor version?

Anders