Creating Sheet Bodies from Solid Bodies

You can copy the faces off of a solid body to create sheet bodies. You can copy the entire solid body, or only specific faces. You can choose to create a single sheet body from all faces, or a minimum number of separate sheet bodies. The number of separate sheet bodies that are generated depends on the topological connectivity of the geometry. The original solid body remains unchanged.

To create sheet bodies from solid bodies (or faces):

  1. Select the bodies (or faces) that you want to convert, using one of the following methods:
    • Select one or more body nodes in the 3D-CAD Bodies node.
    • Select one or more faces in the 3D-CAD View scene.
  2. Right-click one of the selected items and choose Create Sheet Bodies from the context menu.

    In the 3D-CAD View scene, the context menu provides the Create Sheet Bodies action in both the Faces and the Bodies sections. If you choose the option from the Faces section, the selected faces are converted to sheet bodies. If you choose the option from the Bodies section, all faces on all selected bodies are converted to sheet bodies. If your selection contains a BRep (Boundary Representation) body or face, which is a geometric entity used to model solid objects, you have the option to Create Facet Body from BRep Body/Face.

    The Create Sheet Bodies dialog appears.

  3. Choose whether you want to create a single body from all faces, or separate bodies for each face.
    • To create a single sheet body for all faces, deactivate the Create one Body per Face option. This option is deactivated by default.

    • To create the minimum number of separate sheet bodies, activate the Create One Body per Face option.

  4. Click OK to complete the feature.

Depending on the option you choose, a single sheet body or multiple sheet bodies are created and placed in the Body Groups manager node. A CreateSheetBodies feature node is added to the feature tree.