To generate a surface structure

Note: Generating a surface structure requires a Netfabb Ultimate subscription.

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• Create the reference surface
• Recommended: Prepare the reference surface
• Calculate and apply the surface structure

Surface structures are built up on a part's surface. They are used, for instance, to reinforce parts that have very thin walls by supporting them with a scaffolding-like structure.

The surface structure is generated in a similar way to wrapping an elastic net around an object. The number of holes in the net doesn't change, but the size and shape of the holes does, especially when stretching around highly curved items.

Create the reference surface

Generating a surface structure requires the reference surface form one single hole. No matter how flat and level, or bent and irregular, the reference surface must be enclosed by only one continuous border edge. This means that you must create a technically invalid part first.

1. Select the part to have the surface structure applied and click Prepare > Repair Part.
2. Use the selection tools to highlight the triangles in the surface area intended to be covered with the structure.
3. Extract the surface using one of the following tools:
   • Click Mesh Edit > Extract Selected Triangles as Part.

     You will be asked whether to delete the extracted triangles:

     • Yes: The selected triangles are removed from the mesh loaded into the Repair module.
     • No: The selected triangles remain part of the mesh loaded into the Repair module.

     Unless you wish to continue using this instance of the repair, your choice doesn't matter as the extracted surface is used as a reference only. After the triangles have been extracted, you may close and remove this repair instance without applying any changes made here.

   • Alternatively, depending on your part, it may be quicker to simply select the triangles you do not want to be covered by the structure and to delete them (Repair > Remove Selected Triangles or Delete key), leaving behind the triangles to be covered.
     Note: In this case, you must use Apply Repair.

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Recommended: Prepare the reference surface

3S uses the triangle shapes, sizes, and distribution to determine the cell shapes. You may need to refine the mesh of the extracted surface to have a more uniform distribution of triangles if 3S produces a low-quality result. See Refine Triangle Mesh to quickly increase distribution uniformity.

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Calculate and apply the surface structure

To determine the cell amount and cell size distribution, 3S combines a selection on a rectangular parametrization grid with a selection on the reference surface. The size of the currently selected basecell is ignored, only the actual beam thickness is observed. The calculated grid may be visualized through a simple net of lines before calculating the actual mesh representation. This speeds up calculation and operation, sometimes significantly so, as the calculation and memory cost for an actual mesh created out of both basecell and structure information can be severe.

1. Select the part.
2. Click Modify > Generate Surface Structure.
3. Place corner points in the Parametrization section of the tabsheet to define your surface net. As you do so, corner points are also placed on the reference surface which you can move as well.
   Note: If no corner points are placed on the reference surface, or if they are all placed in one location, the surface is not valid for the structure calculation. Make sure to create a suitable surface first.
4. The total amount of cells used to calculate the structure is dependent on the cells enclosed by the surface. Move the corner points to the corners or edges of the Parametrization grid and adjust the values for Size X and Size Y as necessary.
5. Adjust the Height to determine the thickness of the surface structure with regards to the original reference surface
6. Click Parametrization to visualize the structure with a yellow net. Adjust and add corner points to redistribute the available cells as necessary.
7. Click Preview to generate a mesh.
8. Click Generate to create the surface structure on the part.

You can now continue working with the created structure. You may also remove the part containing the reference surface.

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