Analyzing Surface Curvature

Surfacic Curvature Analysis lets you assess the curvature of a surface.

Before you begin:

Open an existing 3D shape.

  1. In the Type area, select Gaussian.
  2. Select a surface.
    The surface is painted according to the color scale in the dialog box.
  3. Adjust the color scale: In the Color scale dialog box, click Use Min Max.
    • The maximum and minimum values in the dialog box are specify according to the values detected on the surface.
    • The analysis colors are updated to match the color scale in the dialog box.
  4. Show gaussian curvature information on all parts of the surface:
    1. In the Options area, click On The Fly .
    2. Move the cursor over the surface.
  5. Show minimum/maximum/mean curvature information on all parts of the surface:
    1. In the Type area, select Minimum, Maximum, or Mean.
    2. Move the cursor over the surface.
    Important: The color scale does not change when you switch from one analysis type to another analysis type (except for Limited and Inflection Area types), or to another element.
  6. Show the position of the maximum and minimum values:
    1. In the Options area, clear On The Fly .
    2. Click Show MinMax .
  7. Define a radius limit and reduce the number of colors in the color scale:
    1. In the Type area, select Limited .
    2. In the Options area, click On The Fly .
    3. In the Limited Radius options area, enter the radius value or use the arrows to change it.
  8. In the Type area, select Inflection Area.
  9. In the Type area, select Symmetric Gaussian. Select the required parameters.
    The color range contains 11 colors on the positive side, 11 colors on the negative side, and pink color indicating zero in the middle.
    Note: To change the total number of colors, right-click any of the color icons, select Number of Colors, and enter a value between 1 to 15 in the Number of Colors dialog box.
  10. In the Type area, select Flat Region.
    The threshold value is calculated based on the values specified for chord length and height.

    The surface is colored as follows:

    • The areas with curvedness value greater than the threshold value gets red color.
    • The areas with curvedness value less than the threshold value gets blue color.
  11. In the Type area, select Curvedness.
    The values in the color scale dialog box are updated automatically.

    The color scale value ranges from zero to maximum. Only positive values are allowed.

  12. In the Type area, select Shape Index.
    The range of color scale is from -1 to 1. The colors and values are fixed.

    The plane shape is colored pink but pink color is not available in the color scale dialog box.

  13. Click OK to create the analysis.

 

See Also
Surfacic Curvature Analysis Dialog Box
About Analyzing Surface Curvature
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