Solids

Solids are closed volume of surfaces that can take any shape. Solids are three-dimensional entities that can be used in automatic tetra and solid meshing.

The surfaces defining a solid can belong to multiple component collectors. The display of a solid and its bounding surfaces are controlled only by the component collector to which the solid belongs.
Bounding Surface
A bounding surface defines the outer boundary of a single solid.
Bounding surfaces are shaded green by default.
A bounding surface is unique and is not shared with any other solid. A single solid volume is defined entirely by bounding surfaces.
Fin Surface
A fin surface has the same solid on all sides, that is, it acts as a fin inside of a single solid.
Fin surfaces are shaded red by default.
A fin surface can be created when manually merging solids or when creating solids with internal fin surfaces.
Full Partition Surface
A full partition surface defines a shared boundary between one or more solids.
Full partition surfaces are shaded yellow by default.
A full partition surface can be created when splitting a solid or when using Boolean operations to join multiple solids at shared or intersecting locations.


Figure 1.

Create Solids

  • block - Creates three-dimensional block-shaped solid primitives (Solids panel).
  • cylinder full - Creates three-dimensional full cylinder solid primitives (Solids panel).
  • cylinder partial - Creates three-dimensional partial cylinder solid primitives (Solids panel).
  • cone full - Creates three-dimensional full cone solid primitives (Solids panel).
  • cone partial - Creates three-dimensional partial cone solid primitives (Solids panel).
  • sphere center and radius - Creates three-dimensional sphere solid primitives by specifying the center and radius (Solids panel).
  • sphere four nodes - Creates three-dimensional sphere solid primitives by specifying four nodes (Solids panel).
  • torus center and radius - Creates three-dimensional torus solid primitives by specifying the center, normal direction, minor radius and major radius (Solids panel).
  • torus three nodes - Creates three-dimensional torus solid primitives by specifying three nodes (Solids panel).
  • torus partial - Creates three-dimensional partial torus solid primitives (Solids panel).
  • bounding surfaces - Creates solids by converting closed surface shells which define the solid boundary (Solids panel).
  • spin - Creates solids by spinning surfaces around an axis (Solids panel).
  • drag along vector - Creates solids by dragging surfaces along a vector (Solids panel).
  • drag along line - Creates solids by dragging surfaces along a line (Solids panel).
  • drag along normal - Creates solids by dragging surfaces along their normal (Solids panel).
  • ribs - Creates and modifies simple ribs between two surfaces (Ribs panel).
  • ruled linear - Creates solids by interpolating linearly between surfaces (Solids panel).
  • ruled smooth - Creates solids by interpolating smoothly between surfaces (Solids panel).
  • duplicate - Creates solids by duplicating existing solids. This is available in many panels when the "duplicate" advanced entity selector is available on a solids collector.
  • Misc. API commands that do not have an associated panel.
  • Additional capabilities are available in solidThinking and solidThinking Inspire.

Edit Solids

  • delete - Deletes solids (Delete panel).
  • trim - Trims solids using nodes, lines, surfaces and planes (Solid Edit panel).
  • merge - Combines two or more solids into a single solid (Solid Edit panel).
  • detach - Detaches solids that have shared fin faces from each other (Solid Edit panel).
  • boolean - Performs complex merge and split functions on solids (Solid Edit panel).
  • dimensioning - Modifies dimensions of or between surfaces (Dimensioning panel).
  • translate - Moves solids along a vector direction (Translate panel).
  • rotate - Rotates solids about a vector axis (Rotate panel).
  • scale - Scales the dimensions of solids either proportionally or uniformly (Scale panel).
  • reflect - Reflects solids about a plane to create a mirror image (Reflect panel).
  • position - Translates and rotate solids into new positions (Position panel).
  • permute - Switches the coordinates of solids (Permute panel).
  • renumber - Renumbers solids (Renumber panel).
  • Misc. API commands that do not have an associated panel.
  • Additional capabilities are available in solidThinking and solidThinking Inspire. See tutorial HM-2080 for an example.

Query Solids

  • shortest distance - Finds the shortest distance between entities (Shortest Distance dialog).
  • interference check - Finds penetrations/intersections between geometries (Geometry Interference Check dialog).
  • normal - Reviews the normal direction of solid surfaces (Normals panel).
  • organize - Moves solids into different component collectors (Organize panel).
  • numbers - Displays the IDs of solids (Numbers panel).
  • count - Counts the total or displayed solids (Count panel).
  • area - Queries the total area of the selected solids' surfaces (Mass Calc panel).
  • volume - Queries the total volume of the selected solids (Mass Calc panel).
  • dimensioning - Queries dimensions of or between surfaces (Dimensioning panel).
  • Misc. API commands that do not have an associated panel.