Point Projection

Controlling whether and by how much the belt path is projected forwards from the base path.

Note: From PRIMER V14 onwards it is possible to control offsets on a per-point basis. See Control Projection mode.

Fixed distance - suitable for adult dummies.

This example shows how fitting a belt to an adult dummy is like "fitting a rubber band around an egg".

The underlying path (black line) is projected outwards at each point by the projection distance when creating the meshing path, shown here by the distance between the red arrows, and then pulled back in during form-finding.

This permits basic path points to be located at nodes, despite the fact that these nodes, which are at the neutral axis of shells, are "inside" the dummy structure.

Not only does this make defining path points easy, but when the dummy is repositioned the path points can move with the nodes making it easy to refit the belt automatically.

Distance / 10 - suitable for child dummies.
None - also suitable for child dummies.

For child dummy where the belt path is likely to have to thread through hole, may have reverse curvature, and will usually have a complex shape the "rubber band around an egg" modelling method no longer works.

In these cases you either want a very small projection, hence the "distance / 10", or perhaps no projection at all.

The choice will depend on the geometry, but generally the more complex the shape the less likely projection is to be a help when fitting a belt path.

Fitting a belt path to a child will almost certainly require you to adjust most of the basic path points, breaking their association with any underlying node used to pick them originally. This makes projection less valuable since any movement of the dummy prior to a belt refit will not be "known" about at points which are not at nodes.

Distance - setting the projection distance.

This defaults to 35mm, but you can set any distance you like - including zero. This setting is the same as that in the Fitting Parameters panel, it makes no difference where you define it. It is duplicated on this options panel for convenience during fitting.