Analyzing Wall Thicknesses

You can measure the thickness of a part. By using a capability, you can easily adjust the wall thicknes that fit to your needs.

Related Topics
More about Wall Thicknesses

  1. Click Wall Thickness Analysis in the Analysis toolbar. The Wall Thickness Analysis dialog box appears.

  2. Select the body of interest. The selected body is then set as the current object.

  3. Keep Sphere as the computation method. The other method available is Ray. For details, see More about Wall Thicknesses.

  4. Keep Tolerance as the parameter defining the calculation precision you want. The other possible parameters are tessellation parameters: Sag and Step.

  5. Enter the value to define the tolerance you want. In this example, enter 0.4mm. The analysis result will therefore fall within the specified tolerance value. For details, see More about Wall Thicknesses.

    Tip: The measurement unit used in our example is mm. To change units, select Tools > Options, Parameters and Measure and then the Units tab.

  6. Check the Thread/Tap option if you want to integrate the threads/ taps in the analysis. If the analyzed body contains threaded/tapped holes, their specifications such as type or dimension will be taken into account.

  7. Click the Colors tab to access ranges of colors for your display.

  8. Autoscale provides dynamic range scaling for thicknesses. By default, the number of values to be used to calculate different ranges is 10. For the purpose of our scenario, keep this value. Setting 10 values lets the system compute 11 ranges of thicknesses. A color is assigned to each range by the system. The bright red color identifies the thinnest areas of the part, that is areas comprised between 0mm and 10mm. The blue colors identify the thickest areas.

  9. Click Run to launch the analysis. The measure is performed over the whole selected body. A window appears, informing you about the operation progress.

    Tip: In case you want to interrupt the operation, just click Cancel.

    When the computation is done, the colors assigned to the different value thickness show the thickness variation of the part, so that you can immediately observe critical areas where the thickness is not appropriate. The part looks like this:



  10. In case you are interested in only a few thicknesses and therefore prefer to ignore some areas of the part, just clear the color you do not want to display on the part.

  11. For the purpose of our scenario, select all colors again.

  12. Click the Options tab to access display options. By default, On the fly is selected. This option lets you know the thickness value at the point where you position your cursor on the part. The value is displayed in mm, and is not persistent.

    Tips: When On the fly is selected:
    • You can select Display sphere which shows the sphere under the cursor. Its diameter is equal to the analysis value on the point.
    • You can make the thickness value displayed permanent by right-clicking and selecting Fix indicator.

  13. As you have chosen Sphere as a computation mode, No sharp edge is available and selected by default: this option filters out the areas close to edges and which thickness is less than the value set in the corresponding value field. Let's look closely at an example. If you keep the default value, that is 1.1mm, we obtain this display:

  14. Change the value to 2.1mm and look at the updated display:

  15. Click the Sections tab

  16. Right-click on the pad where you want the section cut to be done and select Add section at specified location. For details, see More about Wall Thicknesses. You can also click the Section cut to display a section plane.

    Click to add a new section or right-click on the red section and select Add Section.

    A new dialog box appears.



  17. Name the section, choose the status among None, To be Reviewed, Refused, Validated and Unresolved.

    By default, the status selected is None.

  18. Choose the severity from 0 (most severe) to 9 (least severe).

    By default, the severity selected is 3.

  19. Click OK to close the Wall Thickness Analysis Section.



  20. Click OK to close the Wall Thickness Analysis dialog box.

    Analysis results are stored in the specification tree, below the Thickness Analysis mode.

    Important:
    • The analysis will fail if the analyzed part is non-manifold or if it does not contain any volume at all.
    • The CFO or FMP application is required to access the Wall Thickness Analysis capability. It can also be accessible through CCV workbench, in this case, CCV, FR1, TG1, and HA1 applications are required. No specific license is required to update and edit the wall thickness analysis features, but the CFO or FMP or CCV application is required to change the input body to analyze.