Dividing Bodies

You can create a divide feature. It splits all the volumes of an undivided body between its divided bodies.

This task shows you how to:

Note: Depending on your role, you may not have access to this functionality.

See Also
About Divide Features

Create a Divide Feature

You can use Divide to separate bodies by dividing them into two halves using a surface or a plane as the cutting tool. Each half constitutes a new solid functional set.

  1. From the Manufacture section of the action bar, click Divide .
    The Divide dialog box appears. The in-work body is detected: Body.x is to be divided.
  2. Select a plane as the dividing element.

    Dividing elements can be:

    • Surfaces

    • Planes
    • Sketches: When the sketch is selected, a Generative Shape Design surface is automatically built internally.
  3. Select Keep both sides and Reverse Direction.


  4. Click OK.
    The feature is divided.



    The new functional bodies are added to the tree as two different solid functional sets. Each functional set contains the following:

    • Shell Properties: Links to the original solid functional set's shell thickness parameter and face lists. It also contains its own face lists, which means that you can add open faces to a divided body.
    • Divide feature: Contains the result from the divide.

    The In work object is changed to Divide Body.x.

    Important: The Divide feature splits all the volumes of an undivided body between its divided bodies. The undivided volumes provide you with two options:
    • Protected: Does not split protected volumes but duplicates them within each of the divided bodies.
    • Core: Does not limit the core of either of the divided volumes at the divide surface and allows the internal volumes to be trimmed at the original core extent.
  5. From the Create section of the action bar, click Internal Feature .
    The Internal Feature dialog box appears.
  6. Select a sketch for Profile/Surface.
  7. Enter a value for First length and select the Mirrored extent option.
  8. Click OK.


  9. Select one of the divided bodies in the tree and select Hide/Show.


  10. Double-click the Divide.x node in the tree to edit Divide.x.
  11. Select the Core in Undivided volumes option in the Divide dialog box.
  12. Click OK.


Edit a Divide Feature

You can edit a divide feature by changing the dividing element or reversing the direction.

Note: The Keep both sides option is not available.

Both the divided features are siblings and are related, meaning that whenever you edit one of them, the other one reflects the change too.

Important: Divide only divides the functional solid. If you have an assembling body inserted by the Boolean operation under PartBody in the model, the assembling body will not be divided. Here is a simple example model to show the limitation.

  1. You have a solid functional set and an assemblyAssemble.x. When you divide PartBody with a plane, the assembling body (Assemble.x) disappears.
  2. Select PartBody in the Body to divide box and select the a plane in the Dividing Element box.
  3. After the division, Assemble.x is still in the tree, but it disappears graphically.