Creating a Super Capping Surface

In this tutorial you will be creating a super capping surface over mesh nodes governed by specified boundary curves. Open the Super_capping.e3 file from the samples folder of your installation and follow the steps given below. The model contains a mesh (orange) and its boundary curves (red), as shown in the image below.

1. Before applying a surface over a mesh, it is advisable to analyze the mesh using the Extract Zones command. On analyzing the noise (select Noise in the Mode drop-down list and ask for Preview), you will know the maximum noise value as displayed for the Max. Noise option. In this case, it is 0.1178 mm. Keep a note of this value.
   
   
   
   
2. Start the Super Capping command and ensure that in the Constraint drop-down list, Boundary curves is selected.
   
   
3. For the Group 1 selector, select all the red the boundary curves of the mesh. You can use the Chain command to expedite the selection process.
   
   
4. Set Free in the Constraint drop-down list at the boundary curve, so as to manage the situation when the curve is not present precisely at the boundary of the mesh.
   
   
   
   
5. In the next Constraint drop-down list in the selection list, select Smooth points. In the Group 1 drop-down list, select Mesh nodes and select the mesh for the Mesh selector. Ensure that the Constraint drop-down list at the mesh is set to Position, so as to ensure that the surface is generated at the mesh.
   
   
   
   
6. Enter 10 in the No. of Steps edit box under More Options. Now the capping surface will be progressively developed in 10 steps to reach the specified tolerance values.
   
   
7. Select the Precision node under More Options and in the Precision dialog box clear the Global check box. The Position tolerance and Start tolerance mini-dialog boxes will be displayed in the Graphics Area, using which you can specify local tolerance values at the mesh.
   
   
8. In the Position tolerance mini-dialog box enter .25 mm (which has to be more than the noise value as detected in step 1). In the Start tolerance mini-dialog box you have to enter a value that is 10 times of that specified for Position tolerance (because No. of Steps has been set to 10), hence, enter 2.5 mm.
   
   
   
   
9. Now Apply () the command to generate the surface. You can use the Hide Entities command to hide the curves and mesh to see the surface properly.
   
   
   
   
10. Finally you can apply the Zebra command to see the quality of the surface that has been generated.