Imprinting Faces

Imprint Faces allows you to select faces to be imprinted onto one another.

Face-based imprinting offers the following benefits over body-based imprinting:
  • Provides the flexibility to imprint two bodies onto one another in some, but not necessarily all, areas of contact between the bodies.
  • Face-based imprinting offers better performance.
There are two options for imprinting from which you can choose:
  • Between Faces of two Bodies - allows you to imprint two collections of faces onto one another. The faces of each collection must belong to the same body. However, the bodies of the two collections of faces must be different.
  • Between Face pairs from Filters - allows you to imprint faces using filters. You can use the Search Tool to find contacting faces and then use the result as an input filter into the face imprint feature.
  1. To use the mode, Between Faces of two Bodies:
    1. Right-click on a face in the 3D-CAD View scene and select Imprint Faces.
    2. In the Imprint Faces panel, the Between Faces of two Bodies option is selected by default.
    3. To add to the face selection, click within the Faces of First Body or Faces of Second Body box, then press and hold <CTRL> and select further faces in the graphics window.
    4. To remove one or all faces from either box, select the faces in the list, right-click, and choose the corresponding action.
    5. Choose an appropriate Imprint Type for your case. See Imprint Faces Panel.
    6. Click OK.
    It can be challenging to pick faces that are in contact with each other in the 3D-CAD View scene. To facilitate selection you can:
    • Use the Explode Model View feature to temporarily separate the bodies of contacting faces. See Creating Exploded Views.
    • Hide the faces (or bodies of faces) which are in contact.
To use the Between Face pairs from Filters mode, you must first create a filter using the Search Tool that finds the contacting faces in a 3D-CAD model.
A graphic card board is used as an example to demonstrate how to use the search tool to find contacting faces.

  1. To find contacting faces in a 3D-CAD model:
    1. Launch the Search Tool. See Design Filter: Input Options.
    2. Accept the default Selection Mode (Entire CAD Model) and Input Type (Bodies).
    3. In the Search Criteria group box, create the following query:
      1. Select the Conditions option.
      2. Choose Clash + Face Pair + is + Overlap. Click (Commit Changes). You can also use the Proximity design filter predicate.
    4. Click Search.
      The image below shows the contacting faces found by the search tool.

    5. In the Results Panel, ensure Create is set to Filter.
    6. Click OK.
      This action creates Design Filter 1 under the Design Filters node in the simulation tree.
    7. Rename the Design Filter 1 node to Contacting Faces.
  2. To use the filter as an input in the Imprint Faces feature:
    1. In the simulation tree, select the Design Filters > Contacting Faces node.
    2. Right-click one of the selected faces in the 3D-CAD View scene and select Imprint Faces.
      The Imprint Faces panel appears.
    3. Set Imprint Option to Between Face pairs from Filters.
    4. Click the (Object Selector) icon on the right of the Face Pair Filters box. See Object Selector.
    5. Select the Contacting Faces filter.
    6. Choose the appropriate Imprint Type for your case. See Imprint Faces Panel.
    7. Click OK.
    The following screenshot shows the contacting edges of the electronic components imprinted onto a graphic card board. When creating the imprint, part contacts are created between the selected faces.