Get an outline (outer boundary) of a model

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

I have a model that I would like to get an outline of. My idea was to project the model onto a plane and then somehow only keep the outer boundary of the projection, that is delete all inner edges. Is this approach valid? Any other ideas how I can get the outline?

So far, I can get the projection fine, but I have no clue how to keep only the outer boundary. Is such thing even possible with the API? I have searched online extensively and wasn't able to find an answer.

The reason why I want to obtain the outline is so that I can sweep the model along a path and visualise its collision path.

I have attached both the image of the model and its projection for your reference.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Cheers.

[Vladimir.Ananyev]

Hope AssemblyComponentDefinition.RangeBox property could help you.

It gives you rectangular box that is guaranteed to enclose this assembly object.

Cheers,

[Anonymous]

Hi Vladimir,

Thank you for your reply.

Yes, the RangeBox property is the closest thing I could find to getting an outline.

I am now trying to come up with a way of using this RangeBox information and the projection I already have to, if not find the exact outline, then at least make it tighter than the coarse bounding box.

Cheers.

[adam.nagy]

Hi,

I'm not aware of a function that would simply give back the outline of something, but I was thinking that maybe creating a drawing view for the document might produce less lines, so might be easier to find the outer boundary.

Cheers, 

[Anonymous]

Hi Adam,

Thank you for your suggestion.

I've taken the drawing view approach once I've realised how slow it was to project each edge separately on a model of that size.

Model Projection.png in my original post is actually a result of adding a base view with DrawingViewStyleEnum.kHiddenLineRemovedDrawingViewStyle. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think that is the style that outputs the fewest number of lines.

Cheers.

[adam.nagy]

I think so, but you could also check the effect of the various settings in the UI to make sure.