Manually segment meshes

Use manual segmentation to individually segment and fit surfaces to a mesh.

  1. Select the mesh.

  2. Click Mesh Tools tab > Create panel > Segment > Manual Segment.
  3. Use the options on the Manually Segment Mesh toolbar to control the segmentation:

    • Use the Type drop-down list to select the item type to fit:

      Plane — surface only

      Cylinder

      Cone

      Sphere

      Torus

      Extrusion

      Revolution — surface only

      Shrink-wrap — surface only

    • Click to display the Segmentation Settings dialog.
    • Click / to toggle between generating surfaces or solids.
    • Use Fit to select the fit direction. These examples are exaggerated to highlight the effects of different fit directions:

    Fit inside — Select this option to fit the primitive surface just below the inside of the mesh.

    Fit through middle — Select this option to fit the primitive surface as close as possible to the centre of the mesh.

    Fit outside — Select this option to fit the primitive surface just above the outside of the mesh.

  4. Select an area of triangles on the mesh using the Mesh Tools tab > Selection panel options.
  5. Click Preview to display a preview of the generated items on the model:

  6. Tip: Move the mouse over the generated item to display the fit tolerance.
  7. Click to accept and blank the item. Alternatively click to cancel the preview and close the dialog.

  8. Tip: Clicking an item has the same effect as clicking .
  9. Close the dialog to view the newly created items:

Tip: Previously selected surfaces are remembered if you exit and then re-enter the segmenter for the same mesh.

If you delete a surface before returning to the segmenter, its regions are freed.

If you undo, redo, or modify the mesh, the persisted data is lost. If this happens, the segmenter cannot remember the surfaces it produced.