I have a solid object and I want to remove a face of the solid so it is open (I think I have seen it called a surface solid).

I know I can use the remove face tool, but it removes the face and modifies the adjacent faces to keep the model solid.

If I convert the solid to surfaces I can delete the face, but it doesn't seem to tesselate smoothly when exporting polygons.

I can covert the object to a mesh, then delete the face - and it seems to do ok.

just wondering if I can delete the face before converting to mesh.

currently using ViaCAD Pro 8 - is this something that can be done in Shark?

thanks!
brian

@bwcc, after converting a solid to surfaces, delete the face you want removed, then join all surfaces again. This technique might make better meshes.

If the item is not overly complex, you may want to consider using the "explode Curve" tool, then stitch faces in succession.

Alternatively, consider using the shell command and remove the targeted face, then change the offset to zero. That would give you an extremely tiny weight/mass for the object. It will or might still show some thickness when zoomed in closely.

I created a prism diagonal and then set the shell offset to 0.000001, removed a face, then assigned SAE1020 to it and got a very tiny weight value. When I zoomed in, the shell remaining did not give any immediated visual appearance of being a solid. So, if you're just after presentation parts, this might suffice if your geometry is not overly comples, and if they will be screen shots to keep the audience from zooming in super close enough to reveal the actuality of solid faces.

I then attempted to "re-shell" the object, using 0.0000001, but got no error message. When I then tried my earlier 0.000001, I received an ACIS error:

! Offset null or will make body too thin or inside out:Shell_5301

I hope this helps or is useful.

I think this might work. I tried it on a very simple version of the model and it seemed to look ok - I'll try it on the actual model and post the results

thanks!
brian