Intersecting Bodies

The material resulting from an intersection operation between two bodies is the material shared by these bodies. This tasks illustrates how to compute two intersections.

When working in a CATProduct document, it is no longer necessary to copy and paste the bodies belonging to distinct parts before associating them. You can directly associate these bodies using the same steps as described in this task.

Open the Intersect1.CATPart document.

The initial part is composed of three bodies. Each body contains one pad. To compute the intersection between the Part Body and Body 2, select Body.2.

Intersecting a set of bodies (multi-selected via the Ctrl key) is possible. This capability will increase your productivity.

Click the Intersect...

icon.

The Intersect dialog box displays to let you determine the second body you wish to use. By default, the application proposes to intersect the selected body to Part Body.

Click OK to confirm.

CATIA computes the intersection between the two bodies.

Part Body now looks like this:

Now delete the intersection to go back to the previous state. You are going to create a new intersection.

Select Body 2 and right-click to select the Edit -> Body2.object ->

Intersect contextual command. This displays the Intersect dialog box.

Select Body1 in the specification tree to edit the After field.

Click OK. Body1 now looks like this:

You cannot re-apply the Assemble, Add, Trim, Intersect, Remove and Remove Lump commands to bodies already associated to other bodies. However, if you copy and paste the result of such operations elsewhere in the tree you can then use these commands.

Avoid using input elements that are tangent to each other since this may result in geometric instabilities in the tangency zone.

Structuring Your Design

Generally speaking, using Boolean Operations is a good way of structuring your part. Prior to designing, you can actually define the part's structure by associating a body containing geometry with empty bodies. Once these specifications are done, you can then concentrate on the geometry.