Overlapped Objects

This tool identifies the elements overlapped in the existing geometry. The overlapped elements are listed and the user must decide how to proceed with them.



Figure 1. Overlapped Objects panel

The elements and options available in the tool are:

  • Check Normal Vectors If this option is selected, the tool identifies as overlapped elements only those whose normal vectors of the overlapped surfaces (or direction for curves) are coherent.
  • Update Button Press it to repeat the identification of the overlapped elements in the current geometry. It is necessary if the Check Normal Vector option or some elements of the geometry have been modified.
  • Status Indicates whether there are overlapped objects or not.
  • List of overlapped objects found In case of identifying some overlapped elements, they are separated in different lists. When the current selected list is changed, its details are updated and its geometric elements are selected. If some geometric entity is deleted, the next time that the current list is selected, the deleted element won’t be included.
  • Selectable geometric entities in the list All the geometric elements included in a given list of overlapped objects are shown. These elements may be selected from this list. The index of the surface within any partial overlapped object is also shown.
  • Commands that may be useful for the selection By depending on the type of the overlapped objects selected in the first list and the existing geometry in this list, some commands are suggested to be applied. Click twice quickly on the desired command to run it.

In the following, an example of a box and a plane is analysed to test this tool.



Figure 2. Example for overlapped objects identification.

Click on Geometry – Tools – Overlapped Objects to check the overlapped elements identified in the geometry.

With the default configuration, the next elements have been identified:

  • Overlapped object 1. The box and the plane are listed (both are objects). The local index of the surface duplicated within every object is shown.


Without changing the existing geometry, select the option Check Normal Vector and then click on the Update button to re-run the identification. Then no overlapped objects are identified, as the vector normal of the plane is in the opposite direction to the lower surface of the box.

Without changing the existing geometry again, unselect the option Check Normal Vector and then click on the Update button to re-run the identification and come back to the first configuration. Then we are going to solve the overlap issue by using one of the suggested commands. Click twice on booleanUnion, and then select the box as "objectA", and the plane as "objectB".

After finishing the booleanUnion operation, click on Update button to re-run the identification. The Status has changed and no overlapped objects are identified, as the overlapped part of the plane has been removed.