Intersecting

You can use the intersect tools to merge and split a solid or surface in your design with another solid or surface. You can merge and split solids or surfaces with other solids or surfaces, split a solid with a face, and split a face with another face. You can also project the edges of a face onto other solids and surfaces in your design.

DesignSpark Mechanical's intersection capabilities include the full suite of geometry combination, all done with one major tool (Combine) and two minor ones (Split Solid and Split). Combine always takes two or more objects. The split tools always act on one object and that object is automatically selected from the cutter or projection face.

To understand what the Combine tool can do, the first step is to know which objects can be handled. Solid objects have faces that meet at corner edges. Edges that lie on faces can be deleted, but corners cannot. Surface objects have faces that come together at internal edges, and are surrounded by outside edges. Outside edges can be extended. Internal edges can be deleted if they are bounded by planar faces. For the purposes of combine, planes can be thought of as surface faces that extend across the design.

When surfaces enclose a volume, they automatically change into solid objects. When edges of the same surface become coincident, they will automatically merge. Planes cannot be split by any combine operation, but they can be used to split with. In general, layer, color, and visibility in the structure tree propagates from the first selected item (the target) to the result. What happens as a result of the combination can be overridden with the options (both in the panel and the mini-toolbar). When you use the Combine or Split tools, the newly created objects have the layer properties of the previous objects.

You have complete control over the pieces that solids and surfaces get cut into. When appropriate, DesignSpark Mechanical prompts you to remove regions, but you can choose to keep or remove those regions.

When using the intersect tools, the original, individual layers and colors of the objects are maintained.