Intersect/Boolean Faces Tool

The Intersect/Boolean Selected Faces tool allows you to intersect or perform Boolean operations on two face sets. As the tool only operates on triangles faces, any quad faces in the input sets are decomposed to triangles.

A face set is a collection of faces. For face intersection, you can additionally use a user-defined plane instead of one of the face sets.

To display the Intersect/Boolean Faces Options, click (Intersect or Boolean selected faces).

This tool has the following modes:

  • Intersect Faces
  • Boolean Faces

Intersect Faces Mode

The Intersect Faces mode is similar to the boundary intersection feature, in that it intersects two or more separate surfaces to produce a merged result. Both tools produce identical results for a given face set.

The Intersect Faces mode provides the following functionality:

  • Intersection of individual faces.
  • Intersection of faces belonging to different surfaces.
  • Ability to undo/redo the operation.

The following sections provide examples of using the Intersect Faces mode:

  • Intersecting Two Face Sets
  • Intersecting Faces with a Plane
    Note The tool does not create part curves at the intersection plane of the two surfaces. If part curves are required, create them manually.

Boolean Faces Mode

The Boolean Faces mode unites, intersects, and subtracts user-defined face sets.

To be a valid selection for a Boolean operation, make sure that face sets meet the following requirements:

  • Each face set is composed of single or multiple closed volumes that do not contain non-manifold edges or vertices.

    If the face set does not meet this requirement, the Output window indicates which face set is not closed or manifold.

  • Face sets cannot contain self-intersecting surfaces.
  • Face sets cannot contain faces that are directly involved in a part contact. To perform a Boolean operation on such a face set, remove the part contact.

The tool aims to maintain part contacts that are indirectly involved in the Boolean operation, such as a face in a part contact that is connected to a face in a face set.

The following section provides an example of using the Boolean Faces mode:

  • Performing a Boolean on Faces