Part Analysis
For the analysis of a part you have three options. A standard analysis, an analysis of upskins and downskins and the analysis of the part's shadow area. With netfabb Studio Basic, you have only the standard analysis. For users, who have purchased netfabb Studio Professional before version 4.7, the two additional analyses might not be visible because of license issues. In that case, please contact us at support@netfabb.com. You will get a new license file to activate the two analysis options.
An analysis of a selected part can be obtained by a click on the analysis icon in the toolbar, in the Extras menu or in the Extras submenu of the context menu of a part. You get a submenu where you can choose from the three kinds of analyses.
The analysis opens a window in the tabsheet providing information on the part. The content depends on which analysis you have chosen. Information of all of your analyses is listed together. In the project tree, a folder "Part analysis" is added as subelement to the part. All analyses are added to that folder. You can add an indefinite number of analyses.
 A group of analyses in the project tree. |
You can remove single analyses with a double-click on the red X next to the analysis in the project tree. If you want to remove the whole group of analyses, use the red X next to the group "Part Analysis" or right click on it and remove it in the context menu.
[edit] Standard Analysis
The standard analysis provides information on the position, size, volume and area of a selected part, as well as its number of points, triangles, edges and shells.
It provides information about potential damage to the part by showing the number of holes, boundary edges, flipped triangles and bad edges, specifies the overall length of boundary edges and checks, if the part is closed and orientable. Thus, you can find out, if a part requires repair and which kind of repair it requires.
Additionally, the minimum, maximum and average value as well as the deviation are calculated and specified for edges per point, triangles per edge, triangle quality and edge length.
[edit] Upskin and Downskin Analysis
If you choose the analysis of up/downskins, you can identify the top and bottom surfaces of your part. You find out precisely, which surface areas of your part are below a certain angle in relation to the bottom plane of the platform (X-Y-plane). All areas below this angle are either an upskin or a downskin, depending on their orientation upwards or downwards.
This analysis can be very important, as, for example, some production methods have a different quality for upskins and downskins and it may make sense to rotate parts to minimize those areas.
In a dialog box, you can enter the settings for the up/downskin analysis. First, you can tick boxes to analyze upskins, downskins or both.
To the right, enter the threshold angles. If you enter 0°, only absolutely flat areas will be defined as upskins and downskins. If you enter 90°, everything between the flat areas and horizontal planes are defined as upskins or downskins.
In the parameters, you can edit the minimum component size and choose to filter small triangles:
The minimum component size determines how big the upskin or downskin areas must be. Sometimes, it is possible that very small areas, for example single triangles, are within the specified angle. If the size of connected upskin or downskin areas is below the minimum component size, the areas are not classified as upskins or downskins.
With filter small triangles, small triangles which are within an upskin or downskin area, but which are not within the specified angle, are filtered and are still classified as upskins or downskins. That way, wrongly oriented triangles, like greases or similar, do not disrupt the upskins and downskins.
 The dialog box for the Upskin and Downskin Analysis. |
In the analyses screen, the main area of the part is grey, the upskins are blue and the downskins are green. In the tabsheet, you get a field for the analysis, where, for both upskins and downskins, the angle, overall area and number of components is specified and you get single fields for all upskin and downskin components, in which their area is specified.
You always get back to this particular upskin/downskin analysis, if you click on it in the tree or in the tabsheet.
 The upskin of this sphere is colored blue, the downskin is colored green. |
 This part has two upskin components. |
[edit] Shadow Area Analysis
The Shadow Area analysis projects the volume of your part to the X-Y-plane. You get a sort of shadow the part casts on the bottom plane of its outbox.
It calculates the surface area of that shadow and specifies it in the analysis tabsheet. The shadow analysis is sorted below the upskin and downskin analysis.
The shadow area analyis can only be started, if you have a faultless triangle mesh without any holes.
 The shadow of this part is projected to the bottom plane. |
