Analyzing Wall Thicknesses

You can measure the thickness of a part. Using this capability, you can adjust the wall to its required thickness.

See Also
About Wall Thicknesses
  1. From the Check and Repair section of the action bar, click Wall Thickness Analysis . The Wall Thickness Analysis dialog box appears.
  2. Select the body of interest. The selected body is then set as the current object.
  3. Keep Sphere as the computation method. The other method available is Ray.
  4. Keep Tolerance as the parameter defining the calculation precision you want. The other possible parameters are tessellation parameters: Sag and Step.

    Tip: Depending upon the tolerance value entered, the sag and step values are automatically calculated. You can also specify the sag and step values manually.

  5. Enter the value to define the tolerance you want. In this example, enter 0.4mm. The analysis result will therefore fall within the specified tolerance value.
    Tip: The measurement unit used in our example is mm. To change units, select Me > PreferencesParameters and Measure > Units tab.
  6. Check the Thread/Tap option if you want to integrate the threads/ taps in the analysis. If the analyzed body contains threaded/tapped holes, their specifications such as type or dimension will be taken into account.
  7. Click the Colors tab to access ranges of colors for your display.
  8. Autoscale provides dynamic range scaling for thicknesses. By default, the number of values to be used to calculate different ranges is 10. For the purpose of our scenario, keep this value. Setting 10 values lets the system compute 11 ranges of thicknesses. A color is assigned to each range by the system. The bright red color identifies the thinnest areas of the part, that is, the areas with thickness greater than 0 mm and less than or equal to 10 mm. The blue colors identify the thickest areas, that is, the areas with thickness greater than 90 mm and less than or equal to 100 mm.
  9. Click Run to launch the analysis. The measure is performed over the whole selected body. A window appears, informing you about the operation progress.
    Tip: In case you want to interrupt the operation, just click Cancel.

    When the computation is done, the colors assigned to the different value thickness show the thickness variation of the part, so that you can immediately observe critical areas where the thickness is not appropriate. The part looks like this:



  10. In case you are interested in only a few thicknesses and therefore prefer to ignore some areas of the part, just clear the color you do not want to display on the part.

  11. For the purpose of our scenario, select all colors again.
  12. Click the Options tab to access display options. By default, On the fly is selected. This option lets you know the thickness value at the point where you position your pointer on the part. The value is displayed in mm, and is not persistent.
    Tips: When On the fly is selected:
    • You can select Display sphere which shows the sphere under the pointer. Its diameter is equal to the analysis value on the point.
    • You can make the thickness value displayed permanent by right-clicking and selecting Fix indicator.
  13. As you have chosen Sphere as a computation mode, No sharp edge is available and selected by default: this option filters out the areas close to edges and which thickness is less than the value set in the corresponding value field. Let's look closely at an example. If you keep the default value, that is 1.1mm, we obtain this display:
  14. Change the value to 2.1mm and look at the updated display:
  15. Click the Sections tab
  16. Right-click on the pad where you want the section cut to be done and select Add section at specified location. You can also click Section Cut to display a section plane.

    Click to add a new section or right-click on the red section and select Add Section.

    A new dialog box appears.

  17. Name the section, choose the status among None, To be Reviewed, Refused, Validated and Unresolved.

    By default, the status selected is None.

  18. Choose the severity from 0 (most severe) to 9 (least severe).

    By default, the severity selected is 3.

  19. Click OK to close the Wall Thickness Analysis Section.
  20. Click OK to close the Wall Thickness Analysis dialog box.

    Analysis results are stored in the tree, below the Thickness Analysis mode.

    Important: The analysis will fail if the analyzed part is non-manifold or if it does not contain any volume at all.