Measuring Part to Part with Contouring

Select two parts to start the normal measure. If it is the first measurement and there is one model in the window, you will be offered the option to contour part-part distance.

For each node, the closest target segment on the other side of the measure will be found, thus defining a vector. This may be plotted as vector ( Vec ) or the scalar magnitude ( SI ).

Users can Add more parts (in addition to the two original ones) for either side of the measure.

There are further options:

- Die closure option will only plot cases where the vector aligns (within 10 degrees) with the node normal (as derived from the surrounding shells)

- Subtract shell thickness will remove half the segment thickness at each end if this quantity is known.

- Search dist sets the maximum distance in model space to look for nearby parts. The allows the calculation for very large models to be sped up by reducing the search distance. (Default 1E7)

(Re)Calculate SI will give a scalar plot of magnitude of the smallest distance for every node on side 1 vs every segment on side 2 (and vice versa).

Animating the model will now ensure that the measure data is calculated and cached for every state.

The image can then be modified (e.g. by blanking), the correct state selected and the plot recaptured by CT, SI or Vec .

(Re)Calculate VEC will plot the (scaled) vector for each case of closest node vs segment.

The X, Y, or Z vector component may be plotted instead of the magnitude by accessing the Geometry components in the DATA menu.

NOTE: This is the X, Y or Z component of the vector defining the shortest node to segment distance which is not the same as the shortest distance in X, etc.