Navigation: Tools Commands > Identify Coincident Surfaces

 

Identify Coincident Surfaces

 

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Description


This utility can be used to help identify coincident surfaces in the FRED model, which will typically show up as material ambiguity errors in the raytrace output.  The utility works by allowing the user to specify a box (either an entity's trimming volume box or a user-specified box in global coordinates) and then raytracing some specified number of rays through that volume.  If a ray's propagation distance between two surfaces (along the ray's direction) is found to be less than a specified threshold value, those surfaces are flagged as potentially coincident.

 

The user can select an arbitrary number of rays with which to perform sampling of the volume.  The following method is used in the calculation:

 

1.

 

N rays are generated with random positions/directions within the box volume.

2.

 

Rays are moved free-space along their current directions to the edge of the box.

3.

 

Rays are propagated forward into the box and are allowed to intersect surfaces.

          a. Ray intersection propagation distances are checked to map the coincident surfaces.

 

After the calculation has been performed, a report is generated and printed to the output window.  The report includes the calculation time, calculation settings and a list of potentially coincident surfaces along with their ray counts.  Ray counts for the coincident surfaces may be used as an indication of the likelihood of coincidence.

 

 

Navigation


This feature can be accessed by selecting Tools > Identify Coincident Surfaces from the menu.

 

 

Controls


Control

Inputs / Description

Defaults

Volume to Search

Use Entity's Global Trimming Volume

Any entity in the model can be selected using the entity picker interface and the region within its global trimming volume box will be sampled for coincident surfaces.

Toggled

Use Custom Global Trimming Volume

Allows a user-specified box to be explicitly defined in global coordinates by X, Y, Z Min/Max values.

Not Toggled

 

 

Coincident Surface Separation Threshold

Ray propagation distances during ray sampling which are less than this threshold value will be used to indicate potential surface coincidence.

1e-011

Number of Samples

The number of starting rays within the sampled volume.  A larger number of rays will better sample the volume when checking for coincident surfaces but will also take longer to complete.

5000

 

OK

Accept settings, perform analysis, and close dialog.

 

Cancel

Discard settings and close dialog.

 

Help

Access this Help page.

 

 

 

Related Topics


Tools Menu Summary

 

 

 

 

 

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