Extract Midsurfaces

Figure 2.

Use the Midsurfaces: Automatic tool to extract the midsurface of sheet metal stampings, molded plastic parts with ribs, and other parts that have thickness clearly smaller than width and length.

Options

Destination component

Select which component newly created midsurfaces are placed in.

Mask input geometry

Hide input midsurfaced geometry in the modeling window upon exiting the context.

Extract across components

Extract the midsurface of one component at a time.

Clear existing plates

Clear existing plates prior to midsurface extraction.

Midsurface method

Select a method for midsurfacing.

Planes + Sweeps + Offsets

Identify the places where a piece of plane or a piece of a sweep surface can be used as a middle surface. A middle surface is constructed at the remaining places in the model, for example the places where planar or sweep surface pieces cannot be used as a middle surface, by the same algorithm as in offset via the offset of the model's sides.

Figure 3.

Planes + Offsets

Identify the places in the model where a piece of plane can be used as a middle surface. At the remaining places in the model, for example the places where planar pieces cannot be used as a middle surface, the same algorithm as in Offsets is used to construct the middle surface via the offset of the model's sides.

Figure 4.

Offsets

Create pieces of the middle surface by offsetting the model's side surfaces towards the middle. This is the traditional approach for midsurfacing in HyperWorks.

Figure 5.

Skin Offset

Automatically detects the two largest faces on the model, detects the thickness, and then creates the middle surface by offseting one of the faces towards the other one by half of thickness. This is the quickest method for creating a midsurface. However, it is not applicable to many models.

Assumptions:

• There are smooth transitions along the faces. Sometimes, certain non-smooth transitions may be handled by increasing the default geometry feature angle.
• There are no smooth transitions at edges/holes from one face to another one, the transitions should be sharp enough.
• No ribs are present. There should only be one face(plate) in the input.
• No variations in thickness are taken into account.

The typical models where "skin offset" can be successfully applied are metal stamped parts.

Figure 6.

Generate plates only

Generates midsurface plates without extracting the actual midsurface. Provides the opportunity to review and edit midsurface plates before taking time to extract the midsurface.

Offset midsurface position

Select a method for positioning midsurfaces when the thickness of thin solids is inconsistent.

Align steps

Select a method for offsetting the midsurface.

User-specified

Change the offset of the midsurface, using a value from 0 to 1, in order to specify the offset from the largest side of the volume.

Use base surfaces

Use base surfaces info for midsurface extraction.

Cleanup tolerance

Select a method for defining the cleanup tolerance.

Maximum R/T ratio

If the maximum R/T ratio (radius/thickness) is greater than this value, then that section of the solid will not be midsurfaced.

Define thickness limits by

Select a method for defining thickness limits.

Thickness ratio

Change the min/max thickness ratio for midsurface extraction. This is the highest acceptable ratio of the thickest plate’s thickness to that of the thinnest plate. Thicknesses above this ratio are ignored.

Minimum thickness

Change the minimum thickness of the plates in the part that should be midsurfaced. Plates with a thickness smaller than this value will not be midsurfaced.

Maximum thickness

Change the maximum thickness of the plates in the part that should be midsurfaced. Plates with a thickness greater than this value will not be midsurfaced.