Scanning a 3D Shape and Defining Current Objects

You can scan a 3D shape and define a current object without taking the complete 3D shape into account using Scan or Define In Work Object... . It is useful for the analysis and better understanding of the design.

See Also
About Scanning a 3D Shape
  1. From the Review section of the action bar, click Scan or Define In Work Object .
    The Scan panel appears above the status bar enabling you to navigate through the structure of the 3D shape. You can also update the 3D shape feature by feature.

    You need to click the buttons allowing you to move from one current feature to the other. Sketch elements are not taken into account by the command.



  2. Select the Update mode in the way you want to scan the features.
    Important:
    • The Update mode is unavailable for Power Copies.
    • The Structure mode is unavailable in Functional Plastic Parts.

    All features of a 3D shape are scanned in the order of the update (which is not necessarily the order of the tree).

  3. Click Display Tree .

    The Scan Tree window appears and displays all the features belonging to the 3D shape.

    The current position in the scan graph does not correspond to the in work object, nor is the underlined object in the graph necessarily the one underlined in the tree.

    Important:
    • Datum features appear first; geometrical sets and ordered geometrical sets do not appear in the Scan Graph window. For more information about datum features, see Generative Shape Design User's Guide: Using Tools: Creating Datum Elements.
    • Deactivated features appear in the Scan Tree.
    • The part is in No Show mode, so is its 3D display, to build a new 3D display that contains the same features but in a different order. As a consequence, if a geometrical set or an ordered geometrical set is in No Show mode, it is ignored and its elements are considered to be in Show mode. To put the contents of this geometrical set or ordered geometrical set in No Show mode, select Geometrical_Set.x object > Hide components.
  4. Select a feature in the Scan Tree window or in the tree.

    The app highlights the feature in question in the tree as well as in the work area and makes it current.



    Important:
    • A preview of the parents of the current objects is available:
      • If the parents are visible: the thickness of lines and points is increased and the edges of surfaces are in dotted lines; faces and edges are highlighted.
      • If the parents are not visible: the surfaces appear as transparent; lines and points are in yellow dotted lines.
    • If a parent of the in work object is in No Show mode, it is temporarily shown when its child is the in work object.
  5. Click Previous in the Scan window to move to the previous feature.


  6. Click First to move to the first feature.
    Important: In case there are several datum features, the app highlights the last one as there are all scanned at the same time.
  7. Click Next to move to the next feature.
    Important: Scanning Next and Previous skip datum and deactivated features.
  8. Click Last to move to the last feature.
    Tip: Moving to the next or last feature enables to update elements that are not up-to-date.
  9. Click First to Update to move to the first element to be updated and consequently update it. If both geometry and 3D shape are up-to-date, an information window appears and confirms this.
  10. Click this icon again to find the next element to be updated and so on until a window appears to inform you that both geometry and 3D shape are up-to-date.
  11. Click Play Update to replay the update of the geometry.

    A progress bar is displayed while the scenario is being replayed.

    In case of update errors, the replay stops at the first error. The Update Error dialog box is displayed.

  12. Click Exit to exit the command.
    In the work area and the tree, the app highlights the current object. If the object was in No Show mode, it is put in Show mode as long as it stays current.