Interval Firmness

Before describing the methods used to set and change intervals, it is important that the user understand the concept of interval firmness. An interval firmness value is assigned to a geometry curve along with an interval count or size; this firmness is one of the following values:

hard: interval count is fixed and is not adjusted by interval size command or by interval matching

soft: current interval count is a goal and may be adjusted up or down slightly by interval matching or changed by other interval size commands.

default: default firmness setting, used for detecting whether intervals have been set explicitly by the user or by other tools

Interval firmness is used in several ways in CUBIT. Each curve is assigned an interval firmness along with an interval count or size. Commands and tools which change intervals also affect the interval firmness of the curves. Those same commands and tools which change intervals can only do so if the curves being changed have a lower-precedence interval firmness. The firmness settings are listed above in order of decreasing precedence. For example, some commands are only able to change curves whose interval firmness is soft or default ; curves with hard firmness are not changed by these commands.

More examples of interval setting commands and how they are affected by firmness are given in the following sections.

A curve's interval firmness can be set explicitly by the user, either for an individual curve or for all the curves contained in a higher order entity, using the command:

{geom_list} Interval {Default | Soft | Hard}

All curves are initialized with a firmness of default. Any command that changes intervals (including interval assignment) upgrades the firmness to at least soft.

Precedence

If a size is specified multiple times for a single entity, the following precedence is used:

• The highest firmness command takes precedence.
  Hard commands include "curve <id> interval <val>", and "{geometry_list} interval hard" will fix the size at the current size.
• Within a given firmness, the last-issued command takes precedence.
  For example, if the user commands "surface 1 size 1" then "volume 1 size 2", and surface 1 is part of volume 1, then surface 1 will have a size of 2.