Tutorials
Surface Splitting for Point Efficiency
Large complex geometries require tight spacings and lots of points to resolve them.  In SolidMesh, point spacings are applied to the end points of a curve and the number of points required is calculated automatically.  If tight spacings are applied to both ends of a curve (at the leading and trailing edge of an airfoil, for example), the spacing will be tight at every point along the curve, even where tight spacing might not be required.  To help conserve points, the curve could be split in two pieces, so a larger point spacing can be applied in the middle, packing the points to either end where they are needed and removing them from the middle where they may not be required.  This tutorial covers point saving techniques: how to split an airfoil shaped object and a propeller blade to localize packing and minimize the point requirement.  To start, download flying_minnow_clean.igs.gz or continue with the final product of the CAD clean-up tutorialREMEMBER: If you save in the middle of this tutorial and exit,  read the file back in with gluing disabled when you start over.
1.  Continue from the last step of the CAD Clean-up tutorial or download and read in  flying_minnow_clean.igs.gz with gluing disabled (-ng) and trimming enabled (see   for help). 
2.  Starting with the wings, click the Mouth, Prop, and Body groups and .  Looking at the wings, the green wing is split around the wing to pack points towards the leading and trailing edges of the airfoil, reducing the number of points in the middle.  The purple wing is split along the surface to pack points at the body and wing tip.  If wings were split in both directions, around the airfoil (like the green surfaces) and along the airfoil (like the purple surfaces), points would be localized to the areas that were most critical.
3.  Click the RightWing group and .  Select an appropriate point close to the leading edge of the airfoil.  Select the surface shown (leading edge, upper surface) and 
4.  Repeat for the other surfaces front and back, top, and bottom. Exactly where the surface is split is really dependent on the geometry.  Basically, you want to split (add control curves) in areas of high curvature or activity (in the solution). This will allow you to pack points where they are needed.  The surfaces on the end will then need to be trimmed to complete the connectivity.
5.  Select the surfaces on the end and .  Then, select the point and parametric shown and 

REMEMBER:  When picking parametrics, set the pick limit to "Parametric," and when picking points set the pick limit to "Point" otherwise you may pick points on the interior of a curve or surface.

6.  Select the point and parametric shown and 

NOTE: You can be sure the parametrics you are picking are associated with the end surfaces because before step 5 there were no other parametric curves around those surfaces.  Had there been other parametrics, associated with a neighboring surface possibly, you wouldn't be able to pick the proper curve with any certainty.  In that case it's best to turn the surface you're trying to trim off (by itself) and toggle. That way you can know you are splitting the correct curves (those associated with the surface you want to trim).

7.  Select the surface and .  Repeat steps 5 and 6 for the other tip surface.
8.  To continue the splits from step 3 and 4 up to the body, the trimmed surfaces (that meet the body, trimmed in the last tutorial) will have to be deleted.  Select the 4 surfaces shown and
9.  You should also select the parametrics used to create the trimmed surfaces just deleted and .  This is necessary to keep your geometry clean.  Splitting a surface has the effect of creating 2 new surfaces from the original and deleting it.  If you didn't remove the original surface's parametrics you would effectively have lingering parametrics not associated with any surface (at least any working surface).  Also, if you didn't read the file in with no gluing, some of the curves might not disappear.  Curves must be unglued before deleting.  Also, when deleting curves, don't worry if you accidentally select the bounding curve of a surface.  They can not be deleted until the surface is deleted.
10.  Select the point and surface shown (leading edge, upper surface) and 
11.  Repeat for the other 3 surfaces around the airfoil.  Select all of the new surfaces, click the LeftWing group and .  Also, click the Body group and .
12.  The new LeftWing surfaces and the selected Body surface need to be re-trimmed to establish the new connectivity between the surfaces.  Select the surface shown and .  Select the curves that created the airfoil shaped cut-out in the Body surface and .
13.  Select the surfaces shown (1 body surface and 8 wing surfaces, the surfaces shown in the next step are those picked in this step), , and  and increase the display resolution to 51x51.  Also select the yellow body surface then the intersecting purple surfaces (in that order) and 
14.  Select the body surface and  and click .
15.  Select the LeftWing surfaces shown and 
16.  Select the two parametrics shown (you will have to pick twice over the curve shown to get both curves, one from each surface).  Select the point shown and .  Repeat for the other groups of curves around the wing. 
17.  Select the unwanted curves (the parametrics to the left of the intersection line) shown and .  Select the surfaces and .  Click the LeftWing group and .  Click the RightWing group and .
 18.  Select the surfaces shown and
19.  Hit "r", "e", and click the middle mouse button to select all the parametrics that were used to create the trimmed surfaces just deleted.   This is done for the reason stated in step 9, to keep the geometry clean.  Click   to get rid of the points left at the intersection.  These are still visible because they were glued to the end points of some of the curves just deleted.  They actually belong to the curves of the Body surfaces that isn't visible.  The Child button sorts this out and turns them off.  Hit "3", "c" and select an appropriate point (somewhere in the middle between body and wing tip) on the bounding curve of one of the surfaces.  Select the surface shown and 
20.  Select the point and surface shown and .  Repeat until all of the surfaces extending from the body have been split creating a curve running around the circumference of the wing. Select the new surfaces, click the RightWing group, and 
21. , select the Body surface shown (the surfaces that intersect the RightWing in the other scene) selected and .  Select the airfoil shaped group of parametrics in the middle of the surface (the curves that cut the airfoil shaped hole in the trimmed surface just deleted) and .
22.  Re-select the now untrimmed surface, , and select the 8 RightWing surfaces (the ones that intersect the body) shown.  Increase the display resolution to 51x51
23.  and , select the surface shown, and .

FYI: The reason RePick worked to produce the proper intersection is because it retains picking order (body surface first, then the intersecting wing surfaces)

24. , select the surfaces shown (the 8 just intersected with the body) and . Also, trim the surfaces like in steps 16 and 17.  This finishes the splitting of the wings.  The wings are now split so that a tight spacing can now be applied to the leading and trailing edges while using the control curve in the middle to coarsen the middle of the airfoil. 
25.  Click the Body and RightWing groups and .  Click the Prop group and .  Prop blades are similar to airfoils in that they need more points around the perimeter of the blade and fewer in the middle.  The prop can also be split to achieve a more efficient use of points.
26.  Select all the surfaces of one of the blades, , and .
27.  Select an appropriate point (indicated by the arrow) along the surface, select the surface, and .  Continue the split around the blade tip. Select the new surfaces, click the Prop group and .
28.  Select an appropriate point (not too close to the leading edge, but then again not too far, see the next picture for a better idea) along the bounding curve at the base of the blade.  Select the blade surface and 
29.  Select a similar point on the lower bounding curve.  Select the surface and .  Repeat steps 28 and 29 for the two surfaces opposite the curve in the middle of the blade. 
30.  Select a point close to the middle of the blade, select the surface shown, and .  Continue the split around the blade.  Select the new surfaces, click the Prop group, and .
31.  Select the 4 surfaces shown (the ones on the back side of the blade are selected also even though its hard to see in the picture) and .
32.  Select the parametric curve and  point shown and .  Again, use "Param" and "Point" pick limits when picking the parametric and point, respectively, so you get the right curve and split it at the correct point.
33.  Select the surface and .  Repeat for the other three surfaces.
34. , select the surface shown (the hub surfaces below the blade you're working on), and .  Also, select the parametrics that made up the airfoil shaped hole and . Select the now untrimmed surface and increase the display resolution to 41x41.
35. , select the 8 curves at the base of the blade (as shown).
36. , select the surface shown and .  Re-select the surface and .  This blade happens to lie exactly on the hub at all points, so only a projection of its curves is necessary.  Had the blade intersected the hub, an intersection followed by trimming the blade and hub, like what was done with the wings previously, would be necessary. 
37.  Since the other four blades are simply rotations of the split blade, there is no need to repeat the work for the other blades.  They can be recreated by rotating the split blade.  Select the surface trimmed in the previous step, , and click .  Select the blades and hub surfaces shown (all surfaces of the other four blades and corresponding hub surfaces) and .
38.  Select the hub surfaces again (since the hub surfaces were trimmed, the deleting in the previous step just removed the trimmed surfaces. The underlying surfaces  and parametrics remain), click  (this selects the surfaces' parametric children), and
39. , select the blade surfaces and the hub, and select the point shown (the point selected is the one at the nose of the hub and can be seen in the lower right corner of the picture).  Since the rotation will be about the x axis, no vector needs to be selected.  Click the VX in the ,  change the value in the field to 4, and change the value in the  to 72.  This completes splitting the blades for efficient point use.
40.  Click , click all the group names, and  and.  The message should report:

Integrity check passed!
0 Edges Picked

Save your model for use in the next tutorial.
 

This completes the splitting of the surfaces for point efficiency.  The next task towards generating a volume grid is to specify appropriate point spacings on all points.  This is covered in the next tutorial: Assigning Point Spacings.

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