Find Intersections and Penetrations

Find intersections and penetrations between geometric surfaces and solids.

  1. From the Topology ribbon, click the arrow next to the Edit tool set name and select Geometry Interface Check from the drop-down menu.
    The Geometry Interface Check dialog opens.
  2. In the Check Type field, select a type.
    • Choose All to check all of the input entities against each other. There is only a single input collector. This is useful when it is not known specifically what entities should be checked. Optionally, self-interference can be included.
    • Choose By pair to checks entities in the first collector against those in the second. This is generally useful when it is known what specific entities should be checked against which other entities, for example, surfaces in component 1 vs surfaces in component 2. Self-interference cannot be included.
  3. Use the entity selector to select geometry to check.
  4. In the Interference type field, select a type.
    • Choose All to check for both penetrations and intersections.
    • Choose Intersections only to check for intersections.
    • Choose Penetrations only to check for penetrations.
  5. Define thickness options to use when calculating penetrations.
    Restriction: Only available when Interference type is set to All or Penetrations only.
    Penetration can only occur between two entities when one or both of them have an assigned thickness. Only surfaces not associated with solids utilize a thickness.
    • Choose Component to determine the thickness from the property assigned to the component. Each component can have a different thickness.
    • Choose uniform to manually enter a thickness. All surfaces will be assigned a constant thickness value.
  6. To consider the edge effects of thickness, select the Include edge effects checkbox.
    Figure 1. Include Edge Effects On


    By default, the edge effects of thickness are not considered.
    Figure 2. Include Edge Effects Off


  7. In the Isolate only failed field, select a method for managing the display of entities that failed the check.
    • Choose None to not change the display.
    • Choose Components to isolate the components that contain failed surfaces, and hide all other entities.
    • Choose Surfaces to isolate failed surfaces (and any associated solids), and hide all other entities.
  8. In the Save failed field, select a method for saving entities that failed the check.
    Tip:

    Use the retrieve option in other panels' advanced entity selection menus to retrieve the saved entities.

    • Choose None to not save any failed entities to the user mark.
    • Choose Components to save the components that contain failed surfaces to the user mark.
    • Choose Surfaces to save failed surfaces to the user mark.
    • Choose Both to save both components and surfaces to the user mark.
  9. Click Run.