Offset/Imprint Edges Tool Options
The following tables summarize the properties available in the Offset/Imprint Edges Options panel.
Offset Edges Option
The following options are available when the Offset Edges option is selected as the Edge Creation Mode.
- Edge Creation Mode
- Choose from the following two modes:
- Offset Edges—allows you to offset edges or curves and imprint them onto the target surface.
- Interactive Sketch—allows you to create free hand sketches which are then imprinted onto the target surface.
- Edge Offset Mode
- Choose from the following three modes:
- Geometry Offset mode—allows you to specify the offset for the source edges using a set of coordinate values in a lab or local coordinate system.
- Projection Offset mode—allows you to project the source edges onto the destination faces either by the shortest distance present between the two objects, or in a specified coordinate direction from source to destination.
- Coordinate Offset mode—use for edge projections in complex topologies or surfaces that generally don't conform to a single coordinate system. In this mode, there is only a single offset direction. To guide the projection in the appropriate direction for the offset, it is important that the sources edges are connected to the destination faces in a single direction.
- Offset distance
- For the Geometry
Offset and Coordinate Offset modes
only.
Specifies the distance by which to offset the selected edges.
If the Offset distance value used in the Geometry Offset mode is larger than the surface length available, the edge projection crawls as far as it can and then terminates at a boundary, part curve, or at the end of the destination surface faces. Conversely, the Coordinate Offset mode can project edges into space and therefore the Preview Offset result can show edges anywhere in 3D space depending on the inputs.
- Projection Method
- For the Projection Offset mode only.Specifies the method used to project the source edges to the destination faces. There are two options for this:
- Shortest Distance—projects the source edges to the destination faces using the shortest distance from the source edges to the destination faces.
- Specified Direction—projects the source edges to the destination faces in the specified coordinate direction from the source to the destination.
- Projection Direction
- For the Projection Offset mode only.
Allows you to specify the direction and coordinate system by which the source edges are projected onto the destination faces.
- Tolerance
- Specifies the upper limit on the distance between the source edge and destination surface that the operation imprints. Based on the tolerance value, the operation then controls whether the projected edge is imprinted on a destination face or merged with a nearby edge. If a destination face is not present within the specified tolerance of the projected edge then the imprint will fail.
- Sample rate
- Allows you to control if all vertices that belong to the source edges should
get projected or if only some of them should be used. The default option is
One vertex per face, which limits source vertex
projections to one per destination face, resulting in a less clustered
result than obtained if the Use All Vertices option
is selected.
The other sample rate options such as Every 2nd vertex skip over the specified number of vertices and project a controlled fraction of the original source vertices, resulting in a reduced fidelity projection result.
- Flag edges as features
- When activated the resultant imprinted edges are automatically flagged as
edges.
The default is for all edges to be flagged. If the input source edges are a mix of curves and regular edges then no option is provided to maintain this mapping, since the resultant imprint edges will contain a different number of edges (and corresponding lengths) to the original.
- Remove Sharp Angles
- Specifies the number of iteration passes used to attempt to remove the inverted edge projections within the resulting offset edges. The default value is 0, which disables the option. To enable the option select a value between 1 and 5.
- Preview Offset
- Displays a preview of the expected offset/imprint result in the scene before you execute the operation.
- Clear Preview
- Clears the preview in the scene. Use this option if you are not satisfied with the offset/imprint result.
- Offset/Imprint Edges (action)
- Executes the offset/imprint operation. This action is activated when the relevant faces and edges are added to the Source and Destination groups.
Interactive Sketch Options
The following options are available when the Interactive Sketch option is selected as the Edge Creation Mode.
- Edge Creation Mode
- Choose from the following two modes:
- Offset Edges—allows you to offset edges or curves and imprint them onto the target surface.
- Interactive Sketch—allows you to create free hand sketches which are then imprinted onto the target surface.
- Start Sketching
- Enables sketch mode. A yellow sketch point will appear in the repair surface scene.
- Close Sketch Loop
- Closes a sketch by connecting the last sketch point to the first sketch point. Available for open sketches containing three or more points.
- Clear Sketch(es)
- Clears all sketches present on the target surface. No undo or redo operations are available once the sketch has been removed.
(Undo the last sketch
point)- Allows you to remove the last sketch point from the current sketch. The sketch is taken back one step for each click. This operation is available when two or more sketch points have been created.
(Redo the last sketch
point)- Allows you to add previously removed sketch points back to the current sketch. This option is available once one or more Undo the last sketch point operations have been performed and if no new sketch points have been added after performing an Undo the last sketch point operation.
- Continue from last
- Allows you to join the previous sketch point to the current sketch point. If this is disabled a new sketch is created.
- Tolerance
- Specifies the upper limit on the distance between the source edge and destination surface that the operation imprints. If a destination face is not present within the specified tolerance of the projected edge then the imprint will fail.
- Flag Edges as Features
- When activated the resultant imprinted edges are automatically flagged as
edges.
The default is for all edges to be flagged. If the input source edges are a mix of curves and regular edges then no option is provided to maintain this mapping, since the resultant imprint edges will contain a different number of edges (and corresponding lengths) to the original.
- Imprint Sketch Edges
- Executes the imprint operation. This action is activated when the relevant faces are added to the Destination Faces group and two or more sketch points have been created.