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.
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).
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).
