RR. Solid Lab tab
- iarmstrong
All benches in Rapid Reserver are cut from a master solid. These can be imported as existing solid files or created in the Solid Lab tab.
Solid Lab consists of four main sections, described in more detail below.
Examples of how to use the Solid Lab tab are shown here.
Operations Set Panel
In this tab you can create a new operation set with a descriptive name indicating what this set is expected to create.
A series of Boolean operations are added in the Operations panel to create a final outcome. Organising the creation of the final files in sets displays a high degree of transparency in what files were used to create the final solid allowing ease of error trapping.
An operation set can be copied with the files swapped out for a different outcome.
Icons | Symbol | Description |
|---|---|---|
Blue Plus |  | Create a new blank Operation Set. All operations must be individually added. |
Double Page | Copy an existing Operation Set including all existing operations. If the same operations are being used to create a phase, swap out the required files. | |
Red X | Remove highlighted Operation Set. | |
Up / Down arrows | Reorder Operation Set by moving highlighted set up/down the list. |
All icons have tools tips.
Operations Panel
Click the Add Operation button to display a list of the available operations. Each operation performs a single boolean step and a number of these steps are used in concert to create the final result.
Add Operation dropdown selection
Operations from Add Operation dropdown are described in table below.
Operation | Description |
|---|---|
Create Solid Above All Surfaces | If multiple surfaces are overlapping, this option will use the upper triangulated surface of the overlapping surfaces as the base for the solid being created. Then this surface projects up to create a closed solid. |
Create Solid Above Any Surface | If multiple surfaces are overlapping, this option will use the lower triangulated surface of the overlapping surfaces as the base for the solid being created. |
Create Solid Below All Surfaces | If multiple surfaces are overlapping, this option will use the lower triangulated surface of the overlapping surfaces as the top for the solid being created. |
Create Solid Below Any Surface | If multiple surfaces are overlapping, this option will use the upper triangulated surface of the overlapping surfaces as the top for the solid being created. |
Note | If only one surface is loaded Create Solid Above All Surfaces or Create Solid Above Any Surface will behave the same and lead to the same result. If only one surface is loaded Create Solid Below All Surfaces or Create Solid Below Any Surface will behave the same and lead to the same result. |
Create Solid From Polygons | Creates a solid from a polygon. These polygons can be digitised in graphics or imported. |
Create Solid Above Plane | Define a plane by typing in an X, Y, Z value. An upper surface is projected above this plane and a closed solid is triangulated. |
Create Solid Below Plane | Define a plane by typing in an X, Y, Z value. An upper surface is projected below this plane and a closed solid is triangulated. |
Union Solids | Joins two or more solids into the same layer. These solids can be intersecting, but may be free standing. |
Intersect Solids | Intersects solids. Returns the intersection of two or more solids. The result is that part that is common to all imported solids. Multiple solids may be imported here. |
Subtract Solids | Outersects solids. Firstly unions the inclusive solids together, then substracts each excluding solid from the result. The result is that part of the Inclusive solids that has had the Excluding solids removed from it. |
Translate Solid or Surface | Type in an X, Y, Z value to define the translation. Existing triangulated surface is translated to the new location. |
Reduce Complexity | Reduces the complexity of a solid. This functionality can be used to remove shards left over after another operation (Example: Subtract solids operation). Input the solid with multiple solids, give a minimum acceptable volume, all the minor solids with a volume below that minimum value will be removed. |
Upper Surface | An open surface is created of the upper part of the input solid(s). |
Lower Surface | An open surface is created of the lower part of the input solid(s). |
Clip Surface by Polygon (Exclude Outside) | Intersect a surface with a polygon(s). This can be digitised in graphics or imported. Exclude the outside. |
Clip Surface by Polygon (Exclude Inside) | Outersect a surface with a polygon(s). This can be digitised in graphics or imported. Exclude the inside. |
Append Surfaces | Append surfaces to one another in the given order. |
Besides Add Operations button Operations Panel also contains icons to delete operations, move up/down, run and save results to the file or Layers panel.
See the detailed description of these icons in the table below.
Icons | Symbol | Description |
|---|---|---|
Red X | Remove highlighted Operation | |
Up / Down arrows | Reorder operations by moving highlighted set up/down the list | |
Blue triangle (Play sign) | Run selected operations | |
Save Disc | Save the result of the selected operation to a file | |
Green Arrow | Save the result of the selected operation to the Layers panel |
All icons have tools tips.
Viewport
In a viewport you may review and work with results of operations and imported layers.
Depending on the operations that are being run, different icons become available at a top of viewport.
All icons have tools tips.
Layers Panel
In Layers panel you may import surfaces and solids triangulations, display and organise them, as well as assign colors, visibility etc. Detailed description of Layers panel options find here.
Video Instructions
See below Video instructions on how to interact with Solid Lab tab features.
The Layers panel tools are explained in the video below:
After loading/creating all the layers required, you can start modeling your Solid Operation sets as explained in the video below:
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