Fill Holes

Click on the Fill Holes button to display the Fill Holes dialog box. You can use this dialog box to repair holes in the model.

Click on the Fill Holes button to display the Fill Holes dialog box. You can use this dialog box to repair holes in the model.

If the hole to be filled covers area of different curvature, you can split the hole into smaller regions, and fill them separately.

This allows more complicated holes to be fixed without the need for full manual triangle editing. After selecting a hole to fill, you can now pick two points on the boundary to split the hole into two regions. If the wrong side is highlighted by default, click to select the region that you want to fill.

For example, using the plate.stl example, you can fill the hole in two parts, filling the flat area with a planar cap, and the curved area with a curvature cap.

To fill a hole:

1. Click on the Triangle Fixing button on the main toolbar to display the "TriFIX" side toolbar.
   
   
2. Click on the Fill Holes button .

Note: If the triangle boundaries are not shown as a white line, click on the Draw Triangle Boundaries button on the Draw toolbar to turn them on.

3. First, pick the hole you want to fill by clicking on its boundary. The selected boundary turns red.

4. Click twice to select the part of hole you want to fill first. CopyCAD shows each pick mark with a circle and outlines the selected part of the hole using a yellow dashed line.

5. Select the Fill Mode you require:
   • Use central node – CopyCAD generates a node at the centre of the hole by averaging the positions of the nodes around the boundary. A new triangle is generated for each boundary edge, using the central node as the third vertex. However, if the hole has only three edges, it is filled with a single triangle, and if it has four edges, it is filled using two triangles.
     
     
   • Planar cap – CopyCAD generates a nominal plane which passes through the boundary nodes (approximately if the boundary is not planar). New nodes are generated on the plane which are within the boundary. New triangles are generated using the boundary nodes and the new nodes.
     
     
   • Curvature cap – CopyCAD calculates the curvature needed to fill the hole by examining the surrounding triangles. New nodes are generated on the curved area. New triangles are generated using the boundary nodes and the new nodes.

The examples below show how important it is to select the correct Fill Mode option. The example shows that in this case, as the hole is on a curved area, you should use the 'Curvature cap' option.

Hole Filled with a Central Node	Hole Filled with a Planar Cap	Hole Filled with a Curvature Cap

When you select either of the 'cap' modes, the average length between nodes surrounding the hole is displayed in the Distance between cap nodes. This value governs the density of the new nodes when using the Planar cap and Curvature cap methods. You can amend it if you require.

6. If you are filling a split hole, repeat the steps to fill the other parts of the hole.
   
   
7. Click on Apply when you have finished filling the hole.

More:

TriFIX Toolbar - Overview