Split edge

MBartlett21

I would like to split an edge of a surface, so I can use my edge change FeatureScript on it

lougallo

@MBartlett21 This seems like an odd request.  Can you explain the use case other than so you can build a feature to mod edges?

jelte_steur814

@lougallo

I have a use case for this. In surfacing i often want to split an edge of a surface 1 to create a surface 2 that is only meeting surface 1 partly. nowadays i have to convert the edge to a curve using composite curve now we can trim that curve. but it's a bit cumbersome. i also often end up splitting the surface in order to split the edges. but i end up with a whole bunch of smaller surfaces that would not need to be the case otherwise.

so in my view a split edge feature could be very useful for surfacing.

kind regards

Jelte

EvanReese

@lougallo Same exact thing for me. It's great for surfacing workflows.

S1mon

Plasticity (also Parasolid based) makes it super easy to split edges and/or faces, and then later remove the splits. It also has the ability to add limit points to lofts, kinda like fillets in Onshape can be limited to an arbitrary point along an edge. Clearly under the hood it's possible to do this.

jelte_steur814

Hey, so I started  learning featurescript so i created a split edge FS as a first practice feature. I noticed other attempts but they didn't all work as i'd like.
I started simple with a position/distance split... the opSplitEdge also allows splitting with another feature like a face but that'll have to wait a bit.

so if anybody else is looking for this feature: here goes:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/df7470bfcac6dbf738846c11/w/4e60241b9fc0b28698901775/e/671818721a239174621cf6b1?renderMode=0&uiState=65f323ee2da7d66653a8662c

S1mon

Added to my toolbar.

It would be nice to have the point shown as a manipulator instead of the debug colored edges. You might want to look at @Evan_Reese's code for 3D Points.


https://cad.onshape.com/documents/309e817bcaf616677a834985/v/2a5b0d5c7243e2a8e6a93479/e/b28795ae9aec5a245cccb936

Or alternately, Evan could add an option to split edges...

I could also see it being helpful to have a pattern of splits. I would pick either individual points to split - or I would pick a number of splits and it would do equal spacing (either by parameter or by distance).

Evan's Facecurves has options for individual vs grid (pattern).

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/a8fffe63f92001db50a75db9/v/4c0e6b481cc73c58be7d40ad/e/193257f65ba4c932585edbb6

Another nice trick is that it has the ability to split a face with a U or V isoparm which is closest to a reference vertex. I could see a similar functionality being useful for the split edge tool.

EvanReese

@jelte_steur814
nice! I've wanted this feature in the past and somehow missed that opSplitEdges() existed. I added it. Feel free to use/remix any of my code. If you do I'd be grateful for attribution of some kind. 

jelte_steur814

Hi S1mon,
I added Manipulators. thanks for the input.
 it was a struggle for a newb like me, but i managed and learnt a lot.

for pattern splits, it think the best way to go would be to make a robust 'split edge by geometry' version. This could be a tab in this dialog in the future. 

that would work with all kinds of pattern features upstream in the feature tree. a curve feature pattern of a plane along one or more edges, would do the trick to create the geometry of a point pattern. 

This results in a much simpler split edge feature and UI.
but that's for another day.

thanks again,

Jelte

MichaelPascoe

Legit! @jelte_steur814

jelte_steur814

Updated to be able to split by entity