Hello,
I have a colleague who is trying to extract the unit normal vector at a (large) number of discrete points on a surface.
Picture a basketball with a datum point at each intersection between seams (assuming basketballs still have seams, but you see what I mean). Then imagine a pin stuck in the ball, one at each datum point, sticking out normal to the surface of the ball. We want to know the X,Y,Z coordinates of each pin-head.
Pro/E will give us the unit normal vector at a point if we use Analysis/Geometry/Point, but only one point at a time.
I cannot help thinking, however, that we should be able to use something like a field point and a User-Defined Analysis to give us the values for all the points in one file.
Our problem is that, whilst we can get the Unit Normal Vector for any of our points, or we can get the full set of values of, say, cross-sectional area across the whole surface using a field point and an analysis feature. We cannot, however, work out a way to use the geometry analysis as the basis for the analysis feature.
Do you have any suggestions? Is there a nifty work-around? Am I barking up the wrong tree with field points & UDA?
I look forward to your constructive suggestions.
Regards,
John
John Wayman, C.Eng, FIED
Senior Mechanical Engineer
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