Tooling Analysis

Use the Tooling Analysis to display mold cavities and draft angles, check for undercuts, and calculate the projected area of the model.

The Tooling Analysis is located in the Analysis group of the 3D-Mode tab.

Mold Cavities

To set the Reference plane, do one of the following:

From the drop down list select one of the standard planes XY, YZ, YZ
Click the Pick a reference plane or curve button and move the cursor across the model. Planes, edges and lines will be shown in light blue. Click to align the reference plane parallel to a plane or perpendicular to an edge/line.

When the reference plane is selected, the faces of the model are displayed in different colors according to the mold cavities:
By default: green - top, red - neutral, blue - bottom.

Show plane (Default: Active)
Show the reference plane as a transparent plane in the view.

Tolerance (Default 0.2)
Enter a tolerance angle for surface allocation. The tolerance angle is necessary because triangulated models are not 100% exact. Increasing the angle can harmonize the results of the analysis if the inaccuracy produces too many artifacts.

Surfaces without draft (Default: Red color)
Select the display of surfaces without draft from the drop down list:

Red color: Surfaces without draft angle are red.
Prefer top side: Surfaces without draft angle will be assigned to the top/green section.
Prefer none: Surfaces without draft angles are gray.
Prefer bottom side: Surfaces without draft angles will be assigned to the bottom/blue section.

Assign
Assign the current colors to the model and close the Tooling Analysis.

All colors of the model will be replaced with the colors of the Tooling Analysis. This cannot be undone and because the colors are a global property this change will affect all existing Custom Views.
If the Show plane option is active, the reference plane will be added as ReferencePlane_Tooling to the model tree.

Angle

To choose the Reference plane. do one of the following:

From the drop down list select one of the standard planes XY, YZ, YZ

Click the Pick a reference plane or curve button and move the cursor across the model. Planes, edges and lines will be shown in light blue. Click to align the reference plane parallel to a plane or perpendicular to an edge/line.

When the reference plane is selected, the draft angles are displayed in different colors.

Show plane (Default: Active)
Show the reference plane as a transparent plane in the view.

Angle (Default: 3.0)
Enter the maximum angle for the display of draft angles.

Direction (Default: Up)
Click the Direction button to designate whether draft angles opened up, down, or in both directions are shown.

Assign

All colors of the model will be replaced with the colors of the Tooling Analysis. This cannot be undone and because the colors are a global property this change will also affect all existing Custom Views.
If the Show plane option is active the reference plane will be added as ReferencePlane_Tooling to the model tree.

Undercuts

To choose the Reference plane, do one of the following:

From the drop down list, select one of the standard planes XY, XZ, YZ

Click the Pick a reference plane or curve button and move the cursor across the model. Planes, edges and lines will be shown in light blue. Click to align the reference plane parallel to a plane or perpendicular to an edge/line.

When the reference plane is specified, the model is checked for undercuts. After the required calculations, the drafts and undercuts will be displayed in different colors.
Default: green - top, blue - bottom, white - no draft, red - undercut.

Show plane (Default: Active)
Show the reference plane as a transparent plane in the view.

Tolerance (Default: 1.0)
Enter a tolerance angle for surface allocation. The tolerance angle is necessary because triangulated models are not 100% exact. Increasing the angle can harmonize the results of the analysis if the inaccuracy produces too many artifacts.

Assign

All colors of the model will be replaced with the colors of the Tooling Analysis. This cannot be undone and because the colors are a global property this change will also affect all existing Custom Views.
If the Show plane option is active, the reference plane will be added as ReferencePlane_Tooling to the model tree.

Tip
The check for undercuts requires extensive calculations and will be always performed for all parts. An estimation of the time needed to perform the calculation will be displayed after starting the analysis.To cancel a running calculation, press [Esc], for example to delete not needed parts in the model tree.

Notes

The undercuts are calculated for all shells/parts individually. If this is not desired, the shells/parts can be combined using the Combine parts [More information] function.

Enabling OpenCL in Settings > Hardware will accelerate the calculation of the collision analysis, undercut analysis, and wall thickness analysis.

Projected Area

This function calculates the surface area of all models that is projected onto one of the three standard planes. This, for example, is needed to calculate locking forces when making molds.

To choose the Reference plane, do one of the following:

From the drop down list, select one of the standard planes XY, XZ, YZ

Click the Pick a reference plane or curve button and move the cursor across the model. Planes, edges and lines will be shown in light blue. Click to align the reference plane parallel to a plane or perpendicular to an edge/line.

When the reference plane is selected, the projected area is displayed in square units. For example, if the units of a model are millimeters in square millimeters.

Visible parts only
Calculate projected area for visible parts only.

Note
The projected area of a model is calculated by graphical projection which could cause some imprecision.

Tip
Use the Placement tool to align the model in the coordinate system.