Solid Intersect

The Solid Intersection (SInt) command allows you to find the intersection body (common part) of two source 3d-solids. Like the regular intersection command (_Intersect), the SInt command works with 3D solids, regions, and surfaces. The SInt command has many additional features and settings that are not available in the standard command.

Command capabilities

• You can process multiple objects at once: solids, regions, surfaces, blocks, arrays.

• You can search for a common intersection of all solids at once, or you can create pairwise intersections.

• You can automatically call the command to convert meshes to solids (MeshToSolid) and thus search for intersections of all types of meshes, objects of the Body type, polylines and circles with 3D thickness.

• The results of pairwise processing are not glued into one solid.

• In a pairwise intersection, one solid can intersect many other solids at once. To do this, you do not need to prepare copies of solids in advance - the program will make copies itself.

• The command processes objects selected in advance, before calling the command.

• You can prohibit deleting the original objects, and the program will work with copies.

• You can even process solids located inside blocks, nested blocks, arrays. Thus, you can make an array of intersections in 1 command call.

• The commands do not change the material and color of the solid, do not erase the coloring of the solid faces, as the usual intersection command does. The result of the union will inherit the properties from the largest source object or from the object to which the material is assigned.

• If you wish, the command can assign a layer to the results. In this case, all the properties of the source object will be replaced by ByLayer.

• All settings are available in the settings dialog and the AvcOptions palette.

• You can create up to 9 styles of command settings and quickly switch them in the command line or in a macro.

If you want to search for intersections of contours (polylines) as you do with solids, then there is the Curve Intersect (CInt) program for you.

The Solid Intersect (SInt) command is not supplied as a separate plug-in, but is part of the A>V>C> Solid Subtract plug-in or in the 3D Kit and AVC Pro collections.

How to use

You can pre-configure the command in the A>V>C> Options Palette (AVCOptions) on the Solid Subtraction tab. Note that these settings are used for 3 more commands. You can create several settings styles to quickly switch between them. You can create your own buttons and macros with switching to one of the styles.

Select solids or other objects to search for intersections.

Call the SInt intersection command.

If nothing has been previously selected, or only one object has been selected, the command will ask you to select objects.

In the selection prompt, you will see options for switching the settings style and for opening the settings dialog.

You can select multiple solids, regions, surfaces at once.

If "subtraction from blocks" is configured, you can also select blocks containing solids. The program will extract these solids into the model and will look for intersections with other solids from the model and from other blocks.

If MeshToSolid is configured, you can select meshes and other objects supported by this command.

Next, the program for converting meshes to solids will be called. You must have a license for this command, paying only for the Solid Subtract plugin is not enough.

All objects will be divided into groups of the same type. Solids will intersect only with solids, surfaces with surfaces and regions. Regions will be processed by groups lying in the same plane.

Flat surfaces will be converted to regions if another region on the same plane is also selected.

Next, the program will begin processing the parts, finding intersections of objects. It is quite possible that nothing will remain of the original solids and no result will be saved. This is not a failure and the program will not report this in the command line.

The material and color of the results will be taken from the largest original object or from the one with the assigned material.

During processing, the program will output messages to the command line about problems that have arisen, but will not interrupt the work, even if the intersection of one pair of objects failed.

You can interrupt the process by pressing ESC.

After processing, all original objects will be deleted. But you can configure the program to save the original objects. In any case, no blocks will be deleted. If a layer is specified for the results, then all processed objects will be assigned this layer and ByLayer properties. At the same time, the coloring of the faces will be reset.

If the intersection has divided the solid into several unrelated bodies, the program will save them separately. But this function can be disabled and multi-solids from several bodies can be saved.

At the end of the work, the program will report the number of subtraction operations performed and the number of errors that occurred.

Be sure to check the command line messages if the program does not work as you would like.

Program settings

Style name

The name for this set of settings. Does not affect the operation of the program, just for your convenience in choosing a style.

Result layer

If you fill in this field, then at the end of the work the program will assign a layer to all objects-results of the work. All properties will be reset to ByLayer, and the coloring of the faces of solids will be erased. Moreover, the layer will be assigned only to objects with which it was possible to perform at least one operation.

Gap

The setting is not used in this command, only for Gap.

Mesh to solid

Convert meshes to solids before performing operations. The option works with all types of meshes and objects of the Body type. 3dFace objects will also be glued and converted. If you select closed polylines or circles with a pseudo-3d property Thickness, they will also be converted to solids. These commands do not process meshes inside blocks - use a preliminary call to the MeshToSolid command. A license for the MeshToSolid command is required.

Subtract inside blocks

The option also affects Intersection, but not in the same way as in Subtraction. If the source objects contain a block, nested block or array, and inside them there are solids or surfaces or regions, then the intersection program will copy the objects from the blocks to the model and will look for intersections in the model. The block remains unchanged and will not be deleted.

Pairwise intersection

The program goes through all pairs of objects you selected, builds and saves the intersection for each pair. If you disable the option, the program will create a single result - the intersection body of all solids at once.

Split multisolids

In this mode, all operations are performed only with intersecting objects, and the results are checked for the appearance of separate bodies in the solid and separate islands in the regions. Each such part is saved as a separate drawing object. If the option is disabled, multi-solids, multi-regions (several solids within one solid) may appear in the results. Unfortunately, there is no API to detect and split multi-surfaces.

Delete sources

All original objects of the drawing that participated in at least one operation will be deleted. If you disable this option, the program will make copies of all objects and work with the copies. When converting meshes to solids, solids will remain in the drawing. Meshes that could not be converted will be saved in any case. Blocks are not deleted under any settings.

Delete subtrahend

The option is not used in the Intersections command.

Limitations of the program

• The program cannot separate surfaces consisting of several separate islands.

• The program does not convert meshes  to surfaces and regions, only to solids. If necessary, use the _ConvToSurface command.

• Mesh conversion does not work inside blocks.

• The program never deletes source blocks and arrays.

• Assigning a layer to results resets all other object properties and solid coloring.

• Messages about most errors are not displayed in the warning window, but are simply written to the command line. This is done so as not to interfere with the work on many objects at once. But sometimes you will have to read the command line messages to understand the cause of the errors. Pay attention to the last message - if there were errors and something was not done, then the last message will be the number of errors.

• 4 commands work with common settings: SSub, Gap, SInt, SUnion. Changing the settings of one command changes the settings of another.