Mesh Workbench: Difference between revisions

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== Introduction ==
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The '''Mesh Workbench''' handles [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_mesh triangle meshes]. Meshes are a special type of 3D object, composed of triangles connected by their edges and their corners (also called vertices).
The [[Mesh Workbench]] handles [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_mesh triangle meshes]. Meshes are a special type of 3D object, composed of triangular faces connected by their vertices and edges.

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[[Image:Mesh_example.jpg|An example of a mesh object]]

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An example of a mesh object


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Many 3D applications use meshes as their primary type of 3D object, like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketchup sketchup], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_(software) blender], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(software) maya] or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3d_max 3d studio max]. Since meshes are very simple objects, containing only vertices (points), edges and (triangular) faces, they are very easy to create, modify, subdivide, stretch, and can easily be passed from one application to another without any loss. Besides, since they contain very simple data, 3D applications can usually manage very large quantities of them without any problem. For those reasons, meshes are often the 3D object type of choice for applications dealing with movies, animation, and image creation.
Many 3D applications, like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketchup Sketchup], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_(software) Blender], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(software) Maya] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3d_max 3D Studio Max], use meshes as their primary type of 3D object. Since meshes are very simple objects, containing only vertices (points), edges and triangular faces, they are very easy to create, modify, subdivide, stretch, and can easily be passed from one application to another without any loss of details. In addition, since meshes contain very simple data, 3D applications can usually manage very large quantities of them without using a lot of resources. For these reasons, meshes are often the 3D object type of choice for applications dealing with movies, animation, and image creation.


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In the field of engineering, however, meshes present one big limitation: They are very dumb objects, only composed of points, lines and faces. They are only made of surfaces, and have no mass information, so they don't behave as solids. In a mesh there is no automatic way to know if a point is inside or outside the object. This means that all solid-based operations, such as addition or subtraction, are always a bit difficult to perform on meshes, and return errors often.
However, in the field of engineering meshes present one big limitation: they are only made of surfaces, and have no mass information, so they don't behave as solids. This means that all solid-based operations, such as addition or subtraction, are difficult to perform on meshes. The Mesh Workbench is useful to import 3D data in mesh format, to analyse it, detect errors, and finally convert it to a solid, for use with the [[Part Workbench]].


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[[Image:Mesh_example.jpg|600px]]
In FreeCAD, since it is an engineering application, we would obviously prefer to work with more intelligent types of 3D objects, that can carry more information, such as mass, solid behaviour, or even custom parameters. The mesh module was first created to serve as a testbed, but to be able to read, manipulate and convert meshes is also highly important for FreeCAD. Very often, in your workflow, you will receive 3D data in mesh format. You will need to handle that data, analyse it to detect errors or other problems that prevent converting them to more intelligent objects, and finally, convert them to more intelligent objects, handled by the [[Part Module]].
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Revision as of 02:59, 6 December 2018

Other languages:

Introduction

The Mesh Workbench handles triangle meshes. Meshes are a special type of 3D object, composed of triangular faces connected by their vertices and edges.

Many 3D applications, like Sketchup, Blender, Maya and 3D Studio Max, use meshes as their primary type of 3D object. Since meshes are very simple objects, containing only vertices (points), edges and triangular faces, they are very easy to create, modify, subdivide, stretch, and can easily be passed from one application to another without any loss of details. In addition, since meshes contain very simple data, 3D applications can usually manage very large quantities of them without using a lot of resources. For these reasons, meshes are often the 3D object type of choice for applications dealing with movies, animation, and image creation.

However, in the field of engineering meshes present one big limitation: they are only made of surfaces, and have no mass information, so they don't behave as solids. This means that all solid-based operations, such as addition or subtraction, are difficult to perform on meshes. The Mesh Workbench is useful to import 3D data in mesh format, to analyse it, detect errors, and finally convert it to a solid, for use with the Part Workbench.

Using the mesh module

The mesh module has currently a very simple interface, all its functions are grouped in the Mesh menu entry. The most important operations you can currently do with meshes are:



  • Regular solid... Create mesh primitives, like cubes, cylinders, cones, or spheres:
    • Create a mesh cube
    • Create a mesh cylinder
    • Create a mesh cone
    • Create a mesh sphere
    • Create a mesh ellipsoid
    • Create a mesh torus


  • Do Boolean operations with meshes
    • Union: Does a union (fusion) on meshes
    • Intersection: Does an intersection (common) on meshes
    • Difference: Does a difference (cut) on meshes



These are only some of the basic operations currently present in the Mesh module interface.
More mesh tools are available in the OpenSCAD Workbench.
But the FreeCAD meshes can also be handled in many more ways by scripting.

Links


PartDesign Workbench
OpenSCAD Module
User documentation
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