Solid/surfaces to cloud of points
Hello,
I'm trying to obtain a points cloud usable in Generative Shape Design from a body part (made in Part Design), how can I manage this?
So far I managed to mesh the body in Advanced Meshing Tools (which generate the desired points cloud) but the exported data contain all the mesh information (points plus mesh elements) and apparently it can't be imported in this format into Generative Shape Design.
Any idea would be much appreciated,
thank you,
Vivien
EDIT for more details :
I'm a PhD student working on (mechanical) vibration assisted drilling. Currently I'm interested in the chip geometry (before deformation), in this process it can be quite complex for many reasons (tool tip complex geometry, clearance face interference, complex tool trajectory, ... and all of these interfering with one another to create the generated surface). Two consecutive generated surfaces allow me to completely know the theoretical chip geometry (under certain hypothesis), so that is what I am trying to obtain.
I created a parametric "realistic" drilling tool (including different kinds of rectifications on the tool tip), both surface & part model : done and functional
I created a 3D parametric curve representing the vibrating tool path : done and functional
The elements above are controlled under many parameters for research purpose,
Now I tried different methods to generate the resulting surface, either by :
- extruding tool surfaces along the tool path (but as the profile cross itself along the tool path, the result can't be obtained)
- fusing consecutive tool body positions along the tool path (discrete step needs to be small, causing numerical failure in the fusing process after a few macro iteration)
none of the methods above worked.
Then I though, I could work with numerical results, that is when I decided to discretize my tool surfaces / solid into clouds of points, then duplicated (transformations and macros) these clouds of points along the tool path (with a given step), and extract the resulting front (using for instance Pareto's method) which will be the a discrete version of the desire surface. (and with a few more easy operation I can obtain a precise chip geometry, parameterized by the tool path and realistic tool geometry).
All of this to say that the only thing that is blocking me is the underlined bold step, which can be sum up to : "how to create a point of cloud based on a complex surface / body" (projecting points isn't possible, the geometry is too complex)
I focused on the meshing tool, that is indeed interesting because it allows me to create more points where I need more precision, and to force points on edges, the exported file contains all the points information (and more...), but there is no compatible export format to import with Digitized Shape Editor, which is sad because every information are here, it's just a formatting issue...
To summarize the meshing tool allows to discrete (and mesh) any element, but there is currently no way to exploit with other workbenches the points created by this method. Simply because you can't export JUST the points.
Hello,
I'm trying to obtain a points cloud usable in Generative Shape Design from a body part (made in Part Design), how can I manage this?
So far I managed to mesh the body in Advanced Meshing Tools (which generate the desired points cloud) but the exported data contain all the mesh information (points plus mesh elements) and apparently it can't be imported in this format into Generative Shape Design.
Any idea would be much appreciated,
thank you,
Vivien
EDIT for more details :
I'm a PhD student working on (mechanical) vibration assisted drilling. Currently I'm interested in the chip geometry (before deformation), in this process it can be quite complex for many reasons (tool tip complex geometry, clearance face interference, complex tool trajectory, ... and all of these interfering with one another to create the generated surface). Two consecutive generated surfaces allow me to completely know the theoretical chip geometry (under certain hypothesis), so that is what I am trying to obtain.
I created a parametric "realistic" drilling tool (including different kinds of rectifications on the tool tip), both surface & part model : done and functional
I created a 3D parametric curve representing the vibrating tool path : done and functional
The elements above are controlled under many parameters for research purpose,
Now I tried different methods to generate the resulting surface, either by :
- extruding tool surfaces along the tool path (but as the profile cross itself along the tool path, the result can't be obtained)
- fusing consecutive tool body positions along the tool path (discrete step needs to be small, causing numerical failure in the fusing process after a few macro iteration)
none of the methods above worked.
Then I though, I could work with numerical results, that is when I decided to discretize my tool surfaces / solid into clouds of points, then duplicated (transformations and macros) these clouds of points along the tool path (with a given step), and extract the resulting front (using for instance Pareto's method) which will be the a discrete version of the desire surface. (and with a few more easy operation I can obtain a precise chip geometry, parameterized by the tool path and realistic tool geometry).
All of this to say that the only thing that is blocking me is the underlined bold step, which can be sum up to : "how to create a point of cloud based on a complex surface / body" (projecting points isn't possible, the geometry is too complex)
I focused on the meshing tool, that is indeed interesting because it allows me to create more points where I need more precision, and to force points on edges, the exported file contains all the points information (and more...), but there is no compatible export format to import with Digitized Shape Editor, which is sad because every information are here, it's just a formatting issue...
To summarize the meshing tool allows to discrete (and mesh) any element, but there is currently no way to exploit with other workbenches the points created by this method. Simply because you can't export JUST the points.
Last edited: