Mesh Workbench
Introduction
The Mesh Workbench handles triangle meshes. Meshes are a special type of 3D object, composed of triangular faces connected by their vertices and edges.
Many 3D applications, like Sketchup, Blender, Maya and 3D Studio Max, use meshes as their primary type of 3D object. Since meshes are very simple objects, containing only vertices (points), edges and triangular faces, they are very easy to create, modify, subdivide, stretch, and can easily be passed from one application to another without any loss of details. In addition, since meshes contain very simple data, 3D applications can usually manage very large quantities of them without using a lot of resources. For these reasons, meshes are often the 3D object type of choice for applications dealing with movies, animation, and image creation.
However, in the field of engineering meshes present one big limitation: they are only made of surfaces, and have no mass information, so they don't behave as solids. This means that all solid-based operations, such as addition or subtraction, are difficult to perform on meshes. The Mesh Workbench is useful to import 3D data in mesh format, to analyse it, detect errors, and finally convert it to a solid, for use with the Part Workbench.
Tools
All Mesh Workbench tools can be accessed from the Meshes menu. Some tools are also available in the Mesh tools toolbar.
- Import mesh...: Import meshes in several file formats.
- Export mesh...: Export meshes in several file formats.
- Create mesh from shape...: Convert Part objects into meshes.
- Refinement...: ???.
- Analyze
- Evaluate and repair mesh...: Evaluates and repairs meshes.
- Face info: Gives info on faces.
- Curvature info: Gives info on curvature.
- Check solid mesh: Checks the solid if it can be converted to a mesh.
- Boundings info...: Evaluates the bounding box of a mesh.
- Curvature plot: Creates a curvature plot.
- Harmonize normals: Harmonizes normals.
- Flip normals: Flips normals.
- Fill holes...: Fills up holes.
- Close hole: Closes holes in meshes.
- Add triangle: Adds a triangle.
- Remove components...: Removes components of meshes.
- Remove components by hand...: Removes components of meshes by hand.
- Create mesh segments...: Creates mesh segments.
- Smooth...: Smooths a mesh.
- Decimation...: Decimates a mesh.
- Scale...: Scales a mesh.
- Regular solid... Creates a mesh primitive.
- Boolean
- Union: Does a union (fusion) on meshes.
- Intersection: Does an intersection (common) on meshes.
- Difference: Does a difference (cut) on meshes.
- Cutting
- Cut mesh: Cuts meshes along a line.
- Trim mesh: Trims meshes.
- Trim mesh with a plane: Trims meshes with a plane.
- Create section from mesh and plane: ???.
- Cross-sections...: ???.
- Merge: Merges meshes.
- Unwrap Mesh: ???.
- Unwrap Face: ???.
Preferences
- Preference Import-Export
More mesh tools are available in the OpenSCAD Workbench.
Meshes can also be handled via Python using Mesh Scripting.
Links
- Miscellaneous: Import mesh, Export mesh, Create mesh from shape, Regular solid, Unwrap Mesh, Unwrap Face
- Modifying: Harmonize normals, Flip normals, Fill holes, Close hole, Add triangle, Remove components, Remove components by hand, Smooth, Refinement, Decimation, Scale
- Boolean: Union, Intersection, Difference
- Cutting: Cut mesh, Trim mesh, Trim mesh with a plane, Create section from mesh and plane, Cross-sections
- Components and segments: Merge, Split by components, Create mesh segments, Create mesh segments from best-fit surfaces
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