Locating Element Penetrations

Altair Forum User

Hi,

I am trying to use the penetration tool in HyperMesh to operate a boolean type operation. I have two 3D meshes and I want to subtract one from the other.

I am hoping to do this by selecting the elements that intersect / penetrate and deleting these. However, the penetration tool only finds the elements that are penetrating with ones that are on the outside surfaces. (See the diagram in the link below, showing the two meshes that I am using, and the located 'penetrated' elements).

Would anyone know why this is occurring, and what I need to do in order to locate all the elements that are intersecting.

Thanks

/>http://files.engineering.com/getfile.aspx?folder=a350df2b-ac3d-470c-8999-23

Altair Forum User

hi,

I am not able to open your link.

but anyways i guess your problem can be solved if you check the 'include self interference' button and instead of elemnt use the complete 'comps'

Altair Forum User

hi.

sorry about that. Didn't realise the link doesn't work.

Here is the image:

/>http://i.imgur.com/OJlL6.jpg

I am pretty sure I checked the 'include self interference' button, but I will try selecting the complete comps tomorrow, to see if that makes a difference.

Altair Forum User

Hi,

I tried using the penetration tool using the entire components, but the same problem has occurred. The penetration it locates are only the ones on the outside surfaces of the solids. It does not find the penetrations inside the volume, even though the solids have been entirely meshed through the volume using a 3D voxel mesh.

Anything else that I could try / any other ideas?

Thanks