Local Join Parameters

Elements

Lists the elements selected for local join.

You can edit the list of elements to be joined:

• by selecting elements in the geometry:

• Standard selection (no button clicked):

• when you select an unlisted element, it is added to the list
• when you select a listed element, it is removed from the list

• Add Mode:

• when you select an unlisted element, it is added to the list
• when you select a listed element, it remains in the list

• Remove Mode:

• when you select an unlisted element, the list is unchanged
• when you select a listed element, it removed from the list

• If you double-click Add Mode or Remove Mode, the chosen mode is permanent,
  i.e. successively selecting elements will add/remove them.
  However, if you clickly once, only the next selected element is added or removed.
  You only have to click the button again, or click another one, to deactivate the mode.

• by selecting an element in the list then using the Clear Selection contextual menu item to remove it from the list.

Options

Automatic Merging

As soon as at least two edges have been selected, Local Join tries to find the distance
between these edges at which the two edges could be considered as joined.
This distance is proposed in the field on the right of Automatic Merging.
Click Automatic Merging so that the distance found becomes the Join Merging Distance
for a Join or Join/Heal or the Heal Connection distance for Automatic Join/Heal.

Note that this distance computation is only possible for edges within a reasonable distance.
If the computation fails, the value remains zero.

Join

Starts only a local join and gives access to the Join Parameters with the Join Option Definition dialog box.

Join/Heal

Starts a local join and a healing, and gives access to the Heal parameters.

Automatic Join/Heal

Start both a local join with the Join Merging Distance criterion and
a local healing with a Heal Merging distance criterion, i.e. a simple join is performed on small gaps and a join plus a healing are performed on larger gaps.

Sets the tolerance at which two elements are considered as being only one for a Join.

It is equivalent to the Merging distance in the Join Parameters. When you modify one, the other is updated.

Sets the tolerance at which two elements are considered as being only one for a Healing.

Join Parameters

Only the Parameters tab is available.

Check connexity

Finds out whether the elements to be joined are connex. If they are not, and the check box is selected,
an error message is issued indicating the number of connex domains in the resulting join.

Ignore erroneous elements

Lets the system ignore elements that would not allow the join to be created.

Keep small elements

Keeps those small elements. 

Simplify the result

Allows the system to automatically reduce the number of elements in the resulting join whenever possible.

Connection distance

Sets the tolerance at which two elements are considered as being only one.
It is equivalent to the Join Merging Distance. When you modify one, the other is updated.

Angular Threshold

Specifies the angle value below which the elements are to be joined.

If the angle value on the edge between two elements is greater than the Angular Threshold value, the elements are not joined. An error message appears.

This is particularly useful to avoid joining overlapping elements. You can either

• deactivate the check box

• or increase the value of the angular threshold,

• or remove all the elements or sub-elements that are in error.

Heal Parameters

Continuity

• Point ensures a passage continuity with a Distance objective,
  i.e. the maximum gap allowed between two healed elements.
  By default it is set to 0.001 mm, and can be increased to 0.1 mm.
• Tangent ensures a tangency continuity with a Distance objective and a Tangency objective which is,
  similarly to the Distance objective,  the maximum tangency deviation allowed between healed elements.
  The default value is 0.5 degree, but can range anywhere between 0.1 degree to 2 degrees.

Freeze

• Elements to freeze: list of frozen elements, that is the elements that should not be affected by the healing operation.

You can edit the list as described above for Elements.

• Freeze Plane elements: the healing operation disregards the selected plane elements.
• Freeze Canonic elements: the healing operation disregards the selected canonic elements.

Sharpness

Sharpness is available for a Tangent continuity.

Edges to keep sharp

List the sharp edges that must remain sharp. You can edit the list as described above for Elements.

Sharpness angle

Maximum value of the angle below which an angle is considered as sharp.

Visualization

The Visualization tab enables you to better understand the discontinuities in the model and the results of the join/healing action.

• For a simple Join action, you can highlight:
• Surface boundaries,
• Joined edges,
• Unjoined edges.

For a Join/Heal or an Automatic Join/Heal action, you can highlight:

• Surface boundaries,
• Joined edges,
• Unjoined edges,
• Healed edges
• Smoothed surfaces.

After Apply, the number of elements found in each category appears in the dialog box.
To highlight them in the viewer, check the corresponding line.
The elements are displayed with the color displayed beside their label.

Double-click the color patch to change this color in  the color editor.

Display

Output Information

Displays information on errors (gaps greater than the tolerance) found on the output elements,
e.g. the elements have been partially healed.

Input Information

Displays information on errors (gaps greater than the tolerance) found on the input elements.

Interactively

Errors are highlighted with a marker, but the textual information appears as you move the cursor over the edges.

Sequentially

In this case, the counter below indicates the rank and the total number of errors.
Click the << or >> to display the information on a given edge.