Engineering Solutions

Spline panel

Spline panel

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Spline panel

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Use the Spline panel to create a shell mesh and/or surface. A mesh and surface can be created using nodes, points, or lines.  You can also use the spline function to create a mesh without a surface, or a surface without a mesh.

Multiple lines, nodes, or points are required. A mesh and/or surface is created using these lines. Lines or nodes can be selected in any order. The correct order is determined when creating the mesh/surface.

There is no limit on the number of lines, points, or nodes that you can choose when creating a spline surface. You can create a mesh using one line or ten lines (of course, trying to create surfaces using a single straight line would not be useful. To create a surface from one line, the line must be curved). You can select a set of lines, points, or nodes that do not form a closed loop. Disconnected entities are connected with straight lines, and create a spline surface and/or mesh within the boundary formed by the chosen entities and the constructed lines. If the lines selected to create a spline are edges of an adjoining surface, the edge topology is updated to make them shared edges, and considers the curvature of the adjoining surfaces when creating the spline surface.

When creating a spline surface, with or without a mesh, using surface edges, select keep tangency to force the newly-created spline to form a smooth transition with its surrounding surfaces, without feature angles between the new surface and the surrounding ones.

When creating a mesh and surface with nodes, they are automatically stitched to the new surface/mesh by default.

For information regarding the meshing options, refer to the Automeshing section of the User’s Guide.

 

Examples

Creating a 3D spline surface by selecting lines

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Lines are selected

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The spline surface is created

 

Creating a 3D spline surface by selecting nodes or points

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Points are selected

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The spline surface is created

 

Subpanels and Inputs

There are no subpanels on the Spline panel. All inputs and command buttons are located on the main panel.

 

Panel Inputs

Input

Action

entity selector

Select nodes, lines, or points.

meshing option
•mesh, keep surf: creates a surface from the selected entities and then generates a mesh on the created surface.  The created surface is retained along with the mesh.
•mesh, dele surf: creates a surface from the selected entities and then generates a mesh on the created surface.  The created surface is then deleted and only the corresponding mesh is retained.
•mesh w/o surf: This option creates a mesh between the selected entities using linear interpolation without creating a surface.
•surface only: creates a surface from selected entities, but does not create a mesh.  You can use the resulting surface to perform any desired geometry cleanup functions or automeshing.

keep tangency

Forces a newly-created spline to form a smooth transition with its surrounding surfaces, without feature angles between the new surface and the surrounding ones.

Valid for surface edge line selection only.

keep line endpoints for planar splines

Keeps line endpoints of surfaces created with closed spline/filler lines.

Valid for surface edge line selection only.

The mesh w/o surf option does have some limitations, such as:

•It forces the same number of nodes on opposite sides in the Ruled panel.
•Selected lines should form a closed loop in the Spline panel.

 

The first three options are variations of the same function, so the mesh/surface generated are also the same.

 

Command Buttons

The following action buttons appear:

Input

Action

create

Creates the spline surface.

reject

Reverts the most recent change.

return

Exits the panel.

See Also:

Alphabetical List of Panels