Stitched surfaces

You can stitch surfaces together into a quilt. To stitch successfully, edges must be exactly the same size and adjacent to each other.

Use Stitch in the construction environment to:

• analyze imported surfaces
• color-mark edges to indicate which ones are currently stitched, or those that are free and can be stitched to an adjacent surface
• select one or all surfaces to stitch into a quilt.

To use the Stitch command:

1. If necessary, activate the construction environment. Right-click the Construction folder in the browser, and then select Edit Construction.
2. On the ribbon, click Construction tabSurface panel Stitch. The Stitch dialog box is displayed.
3. Choose a method to select surfaces.
   • Right-click and choose Select All from the context menu to select all surfaces at once.
   • In the graphics window, click to select one or more individual surfaces. As the surfaces are selected, the edge conditions are displayed. Edges without a co-edge become red in color. Successfully stitched edges are black.
4. Click the Analyze tab to enable/disable edge analysis and assess edges before stitching together.
   NoteChecking tangent edge analysis decreases system performance.
5. Click the Stitch tab.
6. Set the tolerance.
7. Click Apply to join surfaces together in a quilt or solid.

   All newly stitched edges are now black. Remaining free edges are still red and are listed in the Find Remaining Free Edges list, with the maximum distance between each edge pair. Free edges that are not selected and considered for stitching have no value.

8. To stitch surfaces that were unsuccessful the first time, use tolerance control by selecting or entering a value in the Maximum Tolerance list. Look at the remaining edge pairs that you want to stitch together, and at the smallest associated Max Gap value. The Max Gap value is the largest gap that the Stitch command considers for making a tolerant edge. Use the smallest Max Gap value as a guide for entering a Maximum Tolerance value. For example, a Max Gap of 0.00362 must have a value of 0.004 entered in the Maximum Tolerance list to enable a successful stitch.
   Note You can right-click a value in the list to use as the Maximum Tolerance value.
9. Click Apply. All newly stitched edges are now black.
10. When stitching is complete, click Done. All edges return to their original color prior to entering the Stitch command.

Selected surfaces are removed from a body and placed in folders in the browser, according to data type.

1. Open a file that contains surfaces.
2. If necessary, right-click the surfaces in the browser and select Copy to Construction in the context menu to copy the required surfaces to the construction environment.
3. In the browser, double-click the Construction folder to open the construction environment.
4. On the ribbon, click Construction tabSurface panel Unstitch.
5. In the graphics window, click one or more surfaces on a single body, and then click Apply.
6. Continue to select surfaces for removal and, when finished, click Done to quit.

When all surfaces or a single body of a solid or quilt are selected, the surfaces are exploded so that each is a separate body. For example, a solid box becomes six surfaces in the browser.

If a single face or a portion of a solid or quilt is selected, all selected faces are combined into a new quilt provided they are adjacent to each another. If they are not adjacent, individual surfaces are created.