Surface Gap

This command allows evaluating the gap between two or several selected faces or edges. The system evaluates the distance between edges. In this case, the command is used for evaluating the distance between edges throughout their extent, rather than the direct measurement of the distances between two points on the edges. To measure the exact distances, use the command "PM: Measure Element or relation between two Elements".

The command is mostly used for analyzing models resulting from deficiencies of an import or export.

                       

The distances between edges are calculated in the planes perpendicular to the edges. Therefore, for example, two choices of the distance it is used for a pair of nonparallel edges: from the first edge to the second and from the second edge to the first.  The diagram on the right-hand side depicts two lines: a and b. The distances from a to b are shown by dashed lines (the segments l1a, l2a, l3a) and from b to a (the segments l1b, l2b, l3b).  These are the exact distances (the dashed lines on the diagram), whose set is displayed in the 3D window as the distances between edges.

       

 

The command "QH: Show Gap between Faces" is called via:

 

Upon entering the command, you need to select faces or edges, between which you want to measure gaps. To select the faces, use the option:

       <F>        Add/Remove selected Face        

To select ribs use command:

To cancel specific face of rib selection, click it again. To cancel selection of all faces, use the option:

       <U>        Cancel selection        

When several faces are selected, colored "quill" lines appear between the edges, indicating the gaps between the faces.

The option "Maximal distance" defines the maximum distance between two edges, for which the gap is to be measured. The greater is this parameters value, the more will be the number of edges between which the system would evaluate the gaps.

               

If the "Maximal distance" value is great enough, the gaps will be evaluated from each edge of one face to each edge of the other face.

“Minimum distance” defines the minimum distance between two edges, for which the gap is to be measured.

Each line of the quill is painted depending on its length, in an appropriate color according to the color scale. The color scale setup is done on the tab "Colors". Working with this tab is similar to that in the command "QC: Show Curve Curvature".