Why Open Solids are Important
Open solids are one of the major features of the think3 application. Let's see why.
What you need to know:
Open solids give us a new hybrid arena to work in within. The think3 application gives us powerful tools to manipulate solids, surfaces, and everything in between.
- You can work on imported parts that are incomplete, even if some surfaces are missing or incorrectly translated.
- You can turn solids into surfaces and vice versa, retaining associativity (if suitable).
- You can join several surfaces by means of a single entity (ex. to create a cutting tool). Those surfaces won't be merged together, but just sewn together as a quilt. You can always get back to the original surfaces.
- You are always allowed to "edit directly" your model, without restrictions.
- You can modify a "skin" by means of both Solid Features (ex hole, fillet) and Surfacing tools (drag control points, add tangency, GSM, etc.).
- You can combine the power and engineering control of solid modeling technology with the design flexibility of an advanced surface modeler to provide true organic shape design in a single environment.
See this simple example.
You will never get "stuck" when solid modeling features fail, as they inevitably do. Surfacing technology
can always take over, and you can finish your design.
A typical, clever example in practice is the Core&Cavity creation in moldmaking process: See this example.
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