Stitching Sheet Bodies

The stitch command stitches together the specified sheet bodies into either a larger sheet body or a solid volume(s). The tolerance value can be used when these sheet bodies don't line up exactly along the edges. This is common for IGES and STEP models. Only manifold stitching is performed, i.e., edges will be shared with no more than two surfaces.

Stitch {Body|Volume} <id_range> [Tolerance <value>] [No_simplify] [No_tighten_gaps] [Restricted]

This command has three stages to it:
  1. Stitch the surfaces together along overlapping edges Normally IGES and some STEP files do not contain topological information that links surfaces together to share bounding curves. Stitching is an operation that builds up this topological information.
  2. Simplify geometry The command replaces splines with analytics where possible.
  3. Tighten up gaps (inaccuracies) between the sheet bodies The command will build the geometry necessary to tighten the gaps in the model.

When the stitch operation completes, a print statement lets the user know if the resulting body is not a closed, solid body.

The user can choose to omit the second and third options of stitching with the no_simplify and no_tighten_gaps options respectively. This may be necessary in very large or complex models, where the regular approach fails, or takes an inordinate amount of time.

The restricted option limits the stitching operation to the boundary curves of the specified sheet bodies or volumes. All non-boundary curves are ignored by the stitch algorithm. This functionality is intended as a performance enhancement.