Midlines

Use the Midlines tool to create midlines from existing lines, surface edges, or tube solids.

Note: Midline extraction for FE geometry solids is not supported.

Extract Midlines from Lines

Create lines by interpolating between existing lines or surface edges.

From the Geometry ribbon, click the arrow next to the Create tool set, then select Midlines.

Figure 1.
From the guide bar, select Lines in the first selector field (furthest on the left), then select the first line in the model.
Click the second Lines selector and then select the second line in the model.

Figure 2.
Click Extract.
The result depends on the order of selection. If the shorter of two lines is selected first, the midline is generated with a length similar to the shorter line. In addition, the midline is created only between the first line segment and a portion of the second line segment.

If the longer line segment is selected first, the length of the midline is an average of the two line lengths.

A new midline is created and drawn between the two selected lines.
Figure 3.

Create center lines for solid or hollow tubes. You can also create connectors on these center lines to create seam welds.

From the Geometry ribbon, click the arrow next to the Create tool set, then select Midlines.

Figure 4.
From the guide bar, select Solids in the first selector field (furthest on the left), then select the first solid (or tube) in the model.

Figure 5.
Optional: On the guide bar, click to define solid midline options.
Extract center lines with or without seam connectors.

Figure 6.

The following options are available for the destination component when extracting midlines from tube solids.

Access this option by clicking on the guide bar.

Midline: Creates all midlines in a component with the name "midline."
Midline.#: Creates the midlines in components with names midline.1, midline.2, and so on corresponding to the components containing the original solids.
Original: Creates the midline for each solid in the same component as the solid itself. If the solid lies in several components, the midline will be created in one of these.
Original.#: Creates the midline for each solid in the component with the original component (containing the solid) name with 1., 2., and so on. The newly created components will follow HM parts organization of the pre-existing components.
Current: Creates all midlines in the current component.