SpaceClaim Online Help

Displaying curvature

Use this tool to show curvature values along faces or edges. You can use this analysis to identify areas with very tight curves that can be difficult to offset or turn into thin solids.

You can also use the visualization to evaluate curvature continuity along a set of faces or edges. CurvatureAnalysis tool that displays a fringe graph or color shading to represent the curvature along curves or edges. Values indicate how curvy or "swoopy" the curve or surface is at each point. continuity is when the curvature values change in a smooth, continuous manner. You can see continuous curves because the data points will gradually change length or the transition between face coloring is even and smooth. Sudden changes in the length of the data points or color on a face indicates non-continuous curvature.

To display edge curvature

1. Click Curvature in the QualityTools for detecting anomalies or discontinuities in surfaces. group on the MeasureTools for displaying measurement properties of the edges, faces, and solids in your design. tab.

2. Select a line, curve, or edges. Ctrl+click to select multiple lines or edges, or select an object in the Structure treeDisplay in the Structure panel that shows you each of the objects in your design. You can expand or collapse the nodes of the tree to view the objects. You can rename objects, create, modify, replace, and delete objects, as well as work with components..

   You can change the shading colors in the options panel.

   You can change the color, scale, and density of the data points in the options panel.

   Tip Select Edges in the selection filter, then box select to select all the edges in your design.

   The visualization for edges shows lines at data points along the edge. The greater the curve's radius, the longer the data point. Straight edges won't show any data points because they don't have curvature.

To display face curvature

1. Click Curvature in the Quality group on the Measure tab.

2. Select a face or Ctrl+click to select multiple faces.

   You can change the shading colors in the options panel.

   In addition to the face curvature display, the absolute values for minimum and maximum curvature are displayed in the Properties panelArea of the user interface that displays editable details about the selected object(s). This panel is initially displayed on the lower left side of the screen, but can be moved..

   The curvature with the smallest radius is shown in the maximum color (red is the default). The curvature with the smallest radius, or no radius, is shown in the minimum color (gray is the default).

   Each line length of the fringe graph represents a curvature value C = absolute value (1/r) when a surface or body is selected.

Options

The following options are available with the Curvature analysis tool:

Show edge curvature using:

Examples

Displaying face curvature using color