The tutorial section of the manual is still under construction, please e-mail Eric Blades if you have any particular questions about the operation of SolidMesh. The following are a set of tutorials for you to work on.  Before attempting the tutorials, you should read through the user manual and view the examples of each button.  All tutorials assume some knowledge of button functionality, but each button pictured in the tutorial steps is linked to the appropriate page for functionality descriptions.

Things to Remember While Doing the Tutorials:

• In most steps little detailed information is given about the mechanics of picking the required objects.  In most cases, it is best to change to pick type to reflect the type of object to be picked:      when picking parametric curves set pick limit: PARAMETRIC, when picking vertices set pick limit: POINT,  etc...    This will help ensure you pick the required entity.

• Be very careful when splitting, extracting curves, ... to be sure only the intended objects are selected.

• Be very careful not to introduce duplicate curves.  For example, intersecting two surfaces creates parametrics on both surfaces.  If you intersect the two surfaces again without deleting the previous parametrics, you end up with duplicate curves.
• If you're having problems trimming a specific surface, isolate that surface by turning everything on, selecting the problem surface, turning it off and toggling.  Once the surface is isolated you can track down the problem much faster.  Some common trimming problems are:

 
• Curves not glued at endpoints.  Set the pick limit to point, position the pointer over a vertex, and click the middle mouse button.  This selects all curves glued at this point.  If some curves are not selected that you think should be, zoom in on that point and investigate.
• Duplicate curves.  Select the problem surface and query.  The message window reports the number of child curves (parametrics) associated with the selected surface.  Count the curves around the trimming loop and see if it matches the number in the message window.  If not, look for duplicate curves.
• The surface trims but doesn't discretize properly.  Select only the problem surface (by picking off one of the corner points or curves with the appropriate pick limit set) and delete the trimmed surface.  Select the points on the trimming loop and apply an appropriate point spacing.  Re-trim the surface.  If the surface still doesn't discretize properly, write the IGES file and read it back in.

 
• MOST IMPORTANTLY, avoid the tendency to skim the steps and proceed. Read each step carefully.  If you are unfamiliar with a function used in a step, try clicking the button in question for more information.  Look in the user's manual for additional information. Also, each tutorial was written in a single SolidMesh session, so you will encounter fewer problems (following each step after step) if you also complete each individual tutorial in one single session (without saving, exiting, and re-loading).  If you must save and exit in the middle of a tutorial, re-load the igs file with no gluing (-ng) when restarting, but be aware, there may be some minor discrepancies between your model and the pictured steps (the end result will be the same though).

 

NOTE:  The files for download for each tutorial are gzipped.  When you right click and Save As... the .gz extension may be removed. Check the file name and add the .gz file extension, if necessary, before downloading.  The file should remain gzipped when downloaded but without the .gz file extension it will not be recognized as such.  The .igs files are ascii text, so if it's really unzipped, it should be readable.
 

1. Topology Tutorial
2. Short Grid Generation Tutorial
3. CAD Clean-up Tutorial
4. Surface Splitting for Point Efficiency Tutorial
5. Assigning Point Spacing Tutorial
6. Volume Generation Tutorial