New Functions

1. Common

(1) File > Publish RPS

This new function exports shells as stream of points that can be viewed using rapidform Point Stream viewer. You can specify the name and directory of the HTML document to be generated, background color, and so on.

(2) Edit > Add > Vertex > At Ref. Point

This function allows you to add a vertex at a reference point.

(3) Hotkey for Flood Fill

A new hotkey (Shift+B) is added to select faces by Flood Fill function.

(4) Hotkey for Show/Hide Ref. Geometry

New hotkeys (-/=) are added to show/hide reference geometry.

(5) CDK File

Now VIVID 9i CDK file can be imported.

2. Scan Workbench

(1) Optimized Polygonal Model from Scan Data

This is a new function (Build > Triangulate > Batch Process) that performs a series of operations to create an optimized polygonal mesh model from scan data. If you always repeat a series of operations, you may put them into the batch queue and let the program to execute them in order. You can easily add, delete operation, change its parameters, or change its order. The customized batch process can be save in .bpf format. This command can be only applied to a scan data.

Point Cloud By 3D Triangulation Only By Batch Process

3. Polygon Workbench

(1) Extract Exterior Faces

Usually a volume reconstruction shell contains exterior and interior faces. To extract the exterior faces, a new function (Tool > Extract Exterior Region) is added.

First you should search for the seeds of exterior region, and then expand them to select all the exterior faces. In order to better select the exterior faces, region modification options can be used. After all the exterior faces are selected, you can keep, delete, copy or cut & paste the exterior faces.

Shell with interior and exterior faces Shell with extracted exterior faces

(2) Finding and Removing Undercut

Undercut means a part of mold, cast or specimen which deviates from a sloping or vertical surface and turns back onto itself and it should be removed. A new function (Tool > Remove Undercut Region) is added to find and delete the undercut region. You can specify the projection vector. A closed model is treated differently than an open one. Also you can specify the direction along which the undercut vertices are pulled to remove the undercut.

Finding Undercut Area Removing Undercuts

(3) Regional Offset Around Curves

A new function (Tool > Offset > Region Around Curves) is added to create a rounded offset region around selected curve. You can control the offset amount, rounding range and whether to offset the selected or the unselected region.

Shell and Curves Offset region inside curves with edge rounding

(4) Trackball Deformation

This is a new function (Tool > Deform By > Trackball) that deforms a shell using trackballs. It is better than Tool > Deform By > FFD operation in that you can not only use defined grid trackballs, but also picked vertex trackballs, as the deformation control points. As well you can choose to fix the boundary vertices, display absolute and relative position.

Polygonal Shell Being Deformed By Trackball

(5) Bad Polygons Selection

Now there is a new function (Select > Select Bad Polygon) used to automatically select bad polygonal faces. Bad polygonal face means these faces: face with ratio between its biggest edge length and the corresponding height bigger than specified value; face with angle between a neighbor face and itself bigger than specified value. The ratios of the bad polygonal faces to the whole faces in number and in area are shown.

4. Curve Workbench

(1) Extracting Curve from Sharp Edge

This new function (Curve > Create > Fit Sharp Edge To Curve) first extracts points from sharp edges of selected shells. Then you can select some points to fit curve on. The created curves can be made closed.

Shell with sharp edges Fitting sharp edges to curves

(2) Automatic Curve Arrow Resizing

Now the size of curve arrow can be automatically adjusted.

5. Surface Workbench

(1) Polynomial Surface Export

Some software only supports polynomial surfaces and curves. For that purpose, now a new function (Surface > Tool > Export Polynomial) is added to export surfaces and curves as polynomial surfaces and curves (IGES 112 and 114# entity).

6. Inspect Workbench

(1) Blade Inspection

This function (Inspection > Blade Inspection) extracts turbine blade section’s geometry features and compares the 2D deviation between a CAD and a scan turbine blade. The geometry features can be extracted include: chord length, max chord, axial chord, max thickness, leading edge radius, trailing edge radius and so on. Camber line is drawn in green color. As well twist and translate of the section can be shown. The inspection result can be exported to an Excel sheet and the current section can be saved in AutoCAD(.dwg) file format. Furthermore, a rich set of tools are provide to manipulate the result.

Currently for CAD design data, it supports only polygonal mesh. And it may not work well on other types of models.

Blade (CAD & Scan) Section Dimension & Deviation

7. Feature Workbench

(1) Feature > Interactive Composite > Match Surfaces

This function is added to allow you to connect adjacent surfaces at selected edges. It can be applied to not only untrimmed surfaces, but also trimmed ones. It can match 1-pair or n-pair edges at one time.

Picked Surface Edge Pairs Matched Surface Edge Pairs

(2) Solid > Edit > Cut By Solid

This new function allows you to cut selected solid out using another selected solid that is composed of a set of surfaces. Sometime when you cannot cut a solid using a surface (Solid > Edit > Cut By Surface) or a solid (Solid > Tool > Boolean > Difference), you can use this function.

Before cutting by solid After cutting by solid