Thickness Between

Determining the thickness between triangulations

Use the Thickness Between option to determine the thickness between two triangulations. This can be quite useful when the triangulations represent structures. For example, if the triangulations represent the inner and outer surfaces of a furnace, you can use the thickness between to determine any areas of weakness. This thickness can be displayed as distance vectors, which can be labelled, and/or as a thickness contour. You can also choose to clear the first triangulation and to output the thickness to an ASCII file.

A distance vector will be created from each point of the first triangulation to the closest point on the second triangulation. To ensure that the thickness is calculated accurately, extra points may be added to the first triangulation (distance vectors will also be created for these points). These points are created solely for this option and are not permanently added to the triangulation.

To use this option, two triangulations must be loaded. The triangulations must not intersect.

Note: Finding the distance between large triangulations may take some time.

Instructions

On the Model menu, point to Triangle Surface, and then click Thickness Between.

Select the two triangulations.

The progress of the three calculation passes displays onscreen. The following panel is then displayed.

Display difference vectors

Select this check box to display the thickness as distance vectors. The distance vectors are from the first triangulation to the closest point on the second triangulation.

Check the Label Distance check box to label each of the distance vectors with the distance between the first triangulation and the closest point on the second triangulation.

Display thickness contour

Select this check box to create an underlay, which is the same as the first triangulation, except the colour represents the distance between the first triangulation and the second triangulation. Points coloured red are at a greater distance than green and blue points. White points represent the closest distance.

Deselect first triangulation

As the thickness contour is in the same position in space as the first triangulation, it is very difficult to discriminate between them. Select this check box to clear the first triangulation, thus making it easier to view the thickness contour.

Output ASCII

Select this check box to output the thickness to an ASCII file. You will need to specify the name of the output file (the default is thickness.asc).

The format of the resulting output file, which will be stored in your current working directory, is:

Thick

where

X/Y/Z	Refers to the position at which the measurement is taken.
Thick	Refers to the thickness at that point.
DX/DY/DZ	Refers to the components of the thickness vector. These values are only useful for displaying the thickness vector.

Click OK.

The thickness between the two triangulations is then calculated.