Menu
: SURFACECommand
: Change:Faceted ModelShortcut
: NoneThe command converts the target surface or surface set into faceted model representation. Faceted models are made up of hundreds of small triangles, which approximate the original shape of the smooth B-spline or Bézier surface. This representation is often used by other CAD or CAM systems, for use on the World Wide Web and by all of the rapid prototyping systems. One further use for this command is in preparation for the calculation of volume by DeskArtes, which can only be done on facetted models.
A parameter box appears requesting a tolerance for the faceting. This determines the maximum distance of the facets from the actual surface(s).
The parameter max triangle size can be used to force all triangles to be under a certain size. A typical use of this would be to prevent very long and thin triangles from appearing as these may cause problems for other systems.
If several surfaces are triangulated at once, an option called check directions asks whether the normal directions of the facets should be automatically oriented so that they all point in a consistent direction. This is required for volume computations and rapid prototyping.
The fourth option, check gaps, asks whether any small gaps which might be created between the facets should automatically be filled in. This is vital before writing the model into the STL format, for rapid prototyping. This option must be licensed separately.
If the system detects areas of the model which are not connected to the main model then these areas are stored in seperate facetted models in the same element. This often happens if the operater has forgotten to trim some parts of the model. You should check these models to see if they are due to an error.