Apostila Studio 10

the magic of making it simple™
Foundation Training Guide

10
Geomagic, Inc.
3200 East Hwy 54
Cape Fear Building, Suite 300
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 USA
Tel: +1 (800) 251-5551 Fax: +1 (919) 474-0216 www.geomagic.com
Proprietary and Restricted Rights Notice
Information within this document is subject to change without notice. No part of this
documentation may be reproduced in any form or by any means including photocopying,
recording or microfilming or by any information storage and retrieval system including a web
site, without the written permission of Geomagic, Inc. No liability is assumed by Geomagic,
Inc. with respect to the use of the information contain herein. While every precaution has
been taken in the preparation of this documentation, Geomagic, Inc. assumes no
responsibility for errors or omissions that may appear in this document. References in this
document do not constitute an endorsement of any products or services.
© 1996-2008 Geomagic Inc. All rights reserved
Geomagic, the Geomagic logo, Geomagic Studio, Geomagic Qualify, Geomagic Review,
Geomagic Blade, Geomagic Fashion, Geomagic eShell and “the magic of making it Simple”
are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Geomagic, Inc.
All other company and product names referenced herein are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective owners.
Geomagic, Inc., PO Box 12219, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 USA
Guide History
Date Revision
2004-05 Original Release
2005-02 Geomagic Studio 7
About Geomagic Inc.
Geomagic Inc. is a worldwide software and services firm headquartered in Research
Triangle Park, North Carolina (U.S.A.), with subsidiaries in Europe and Asia and distributors
worldwide. Geomagic is the market leader in digital shape sampling and processing (DSSP)
with a vision of mass customization, technology innovation and business performance.
Geomagic software enables customers to accelerate product development cycles and
ensure quality at every step. More than 5,000 professionals use Geomagic software and
services across diverse industries including automotive, aerospace, medical devices and
consumer products. They benefit from unprecedented time savings, short learning curves,
increased productivity and simplified processes.
Contact Information
Geomagic, Inc.
P.O. Box 12219
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 USA
Phone: +1 (800) 251-551 or +1 (919) 474-0122
Fax: +1 (919) 474-0216
Web Sites
Geomagic, Inc. http://www.geomagic.com
Technical Support http://support.geomagic.com
Training http://training.geomagic.com
Email Addresses
Technical Support support@geomagic.com
Training training@geomagic.com
Services servicesinfo@geomagic.com
Sales salesinfo@geomagic.com
.
Table of Contents
1. Guide Description.......................................................................................................... 1
1.1. Intended Audience................................................................................................ 1
1.2. Guide Objective .................................................................................................... 1
1.3. Prerequisites......................................................................................................... 1
1.4. Guide Length ........................................................................................................ 1
1.5. System Information ............................................................................................... 1
1.6. Convention Used in Guide .................................................................................... 1
2. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 3
2.1. Overview............................................................................................................... 3
2.2. Geomagic Studio Concepts .................................................................................. 4
2.3. Geomagic Studio Goals ........................................................................................ 6
2.4. Basic Workflows ................................................................................................... 7
3. Plug-in Fundamentals ..................................................................................................13
3.1. Overview..............................................................................................................13
3.2. Objective..............................................................................................................13
4. Getting Started With Geomagic Studio.........................................................................15
4.1. Overview..............................................................................................................15
4.2. Starting Geomagic Studio ....................................................................................15
4.3. Main Application Window .....................................................................................16
4.4. Mouse Controls....................................................................................................18
4.5. Hot Keys ..............................................................................................................19
4.6. The Options Panel ...............................................................................................20
4.7. File I/O Formats ...................................................................................................21
4.8. Getting Help.........................................................................................................22
5. Data Registration Fundamentals ..................................................................................36
5.1. Overview..............................................................................................................36
5.2. Objective..............................................................................................................36
5.3. Commands ..........................................................................................................36
6. Point Phase Fundamentals ..........................................................................................47
6.1. Overview..............................................................................................................47
6.2. Objective..............................................................................................................47
6.3. Commands ..........................................................................................................47
7. Polygon Phase Fundamentals......................................................................................57
7.1. Overview..............................................................................................................57
7.2. Objective..............................................................................................................57
7.3. Commands ..........................................................................................................58
8. Polygon Phase Advanced ............................................................................................70
8.1. Overview..............................................................................................................70
9. Shape Phase Fundamentals ........................................................................................85
9.1. Overview..............................................................................................................85
9.2. Good Patch Structure ..........................................................................................85
9.3. Detect Curvature/Detect Contour .........................................................................85
9.4. Construct Patches ...............................................................................................86
9.5. Construct Grids....................................................................................................86
9.6. Construct NURBS................................................................................................86
9.7. Tolerance and Verification ...................................................................................87
9.8. Workflow..............................................................................................................87
10. Shape Phase Advanced ........................................................................................119
10.1. Panel Shuffling...................................................................................................119
11. Fashion Phase Fundamentals ...............................................................................128
11.1. Overview............................................................................................................128
11.2. Objective ...........................................................................................................128
11.3. 12 Rules for creating nice Fashion models ........................................................128
12. Extra Activities.......................................................................................................142
13. Getting Support .....................................................................................................163
13.1. Overview ...........................................................................................................163
13.2. Geomagic Technical Support.............................................................................163
13.3. Geomagic Professional Services .......................................................................163
1. Guide Description
1.1. Intended Audience
This guide is for any user of Geomagic Studio who will generate Stereo Lithography (STL)
models or Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) surface models.
1.2. Guide Objective

This guide offers a working knowledge of Geomagic Studio functionality and workflows,
enabling the user to develop company-specific processes for digital shape reconstruction.
1.3. Prerequisites
None
1.4. Guide Length

3-day
1.5. System Information

All files referenced by this guide are found in the folder specified by the instructor.
1.6. Convention Used in Guide

Tip – an item of interest
Note – general information
Notice – important information
Warning – use caution
Details – extra details about a step
Bold text The menu location and name of a command, like File > New
Copyright © 2008 Geomagic Inc. 1 Geomagic Studio 10

Geomagic Studio 10 2 Copyright © 2008 Geomagic, Inc.
2. Introduction
2.1. Overview
This guide covers the basic commands and workflows in Geomagic Studio. This information
will get you started in producing STL models and/or NURBS surface models from scanned
data.
Figure 1 – GeomagicStudio “Phases”

2.2. Geomagic Studio Concepts
The Geomagic Studio application is made up of four modules:
Geomagic Capture
Point Phase Features
• Collection of point data from a scanner plug-in
• Loading of existing point data in a variety of formats (ASCII, TXT, IGES, etc.)
• Intelligent point sampling
• Ability to reduce “noise” caused by scanners
• Primitive features detection (such as planes and cylinders)
• Creation 2D and 3D Features (planes, cylinders, cones, and spheres)
• Conversion of a point object to a polygon object by the “wrap” process
Polygon Phase Features (Limited)

• Curvature-based hole filling
• Primitive features detection (such as planes and cylinders)
• Creation 2D and 3D Features (planes, cylinders, cones, and spheres)
Geomagic Wrap
Point Phase Features
• Loading of existing point data in a variety of formats (ASCII, TXT, IGES, etc.)
• Intelligent point sampling
• Ability to reduce “noise” caused by scanners
• Detection primitive features (such as planes and cylinders)
• Creation 3D Features (planes, cylinders, cones, and spheres)
• Conversion of a point object (including volumetric data such as CGI and CAT) to
a polygon object by the “wrap” process
Wrap Phase Features

• Easy-to-use web removal tools
• Unique filling tools
Polygon Phase Features

• Basic polygonal editing tools
• Multiple boundary edge repair tools
• Curvature-based hole filling
• Decimation feature
• Can create colored polygon models from XYZRGB point data
• Ability to detect and sharpen edges of polygonal models
• Cross-sectioning tool that generates exportable curve data
• Ability to thicken and offset polygon models
• Create 3D Features (planes, cylinders, cones, and spheres)

Geomagic Shape
Shape Phase Features
• Automatic feature line detection
• Automatic creation of watertight NURBS surfaces from polygon models
• UV parameterization with global connectivity
• Automatic preservation of shape topology
• Patch organizational and merging tools
• Template creation tool for rapid surfacing of similar objects
• Ability to export a wide variety of 3D formats (IGES, STEP203, STEP214, VDA,
STL, OBJ, 3ds, DXF, VRML, etc.)
CAD Phase
• Basic Boolean and trim operations
Geomagic Fashion
Fashion Phase
• Automatic region detection
• Automatic surface classification of regions
• Ability to edit surface classifications
• Extraction of curve profiles
• Extraction of trimmed or untrimmed primary surfaces
• CAD ready surfaces
• Ability to export a variety of 3D formats (IGES, STEP203, STEP214, VDA, SAT)

2.3. Geomagic Studio Goals
Figure 2 - Goals for each Phase

2.4. Basic Workflows
Scanner Plug-in
Geomagic Studio
File
Point Phase
Wrap
Surface Volume
Polygon Phase Wrap Phase
Export STL
Surface Phase
Parametric Design
Design Intent Extraction CAE
As-Is Model
Fashion Phase Shape Phase
Export IGES, STEP, Export IGES, STEP,

VDA VDA
Figure 3 – Basic Studio Workflow

Ordered Point Data Plug-in
Geomagic Studio
File
Point Phase
Manual Delete
Select – By Edge Length
Reduce Noise
Ordered Sample
Fill Holes (Optional)
Wrap
Polygon Phase
Export STL
Figure 4 – Point Phase - Ordered Points - Single Scan

Plug-in
Unordered Point Data
Geomagic Studio
File
Point Phase
Manual Delete
Select Disconnected (Delete)
Select Outliers (Delete)
Manual Registration
Global Registration
Merge
Merge Point Objects
Reduce Noise
Uniform Sample
Wrap
Volume Surface
Wrap Phase Polygon Phase
Export STL
Figure 5 – Point Phase - Unordered Points - Multiple Scans

Scanner Plug-in
Geomagic Studio
File
Point Phase
Merge
Wrap
Surface Volume
Polygon Phase Wrap Phase
Open Manifold Remove Webs
Fill Holes
Shoot Through
Defeature
Fine Tune
Sandpaper
Push Shallow
Edit Boundary
Push Deep
Refine
Fill (Layer, Up, Edges)
Section by Plane
Sharpening Wizard
3D Features
Decimate Polygons
Relax
Curves by Section
Repair Intersections
Export STL
Surface Phase
Export IGES, STEP, VDA
Figure 6 - Polygon Phase

Polygon Phase
Surface Phase
Fashion Phase Shape Phase
Auto Surface Detect Contours
Edit Contours
Subdivide/Extend Contours
(Uniform)
Edit Extensions Construct Patches
Shuffle Panels
Edit Patches
Repair Patches
Construct Grids Specify Sharp Contours
3D Compare Fit Surfaces
Export IGES, STEP,

VDA
Figure 7 - Shape Phase - Detect Contour

Polygon Phase
Surface Phase
Shape Phase Fashion Phase
Detect Contours
Edit Contours Extract Untrimmed Surfaces

Extend Contours
(Adaptive)
Classify
Filter
Edit Extensions
Fit Primaries
Analyze
Create Trimmed Surfaces Create Object
Classify
Filter
Fit Primaries
Fit Connections
Analyze
Trim/Stitch
Export IGES, STEP, VDA
Figure 8 - Fashion Phase\

3. Plug-in Fundamentals
3.1. Overview
You can import raw data directly from your scanner or digitizer into Geomagic Studio via a
plug-in or by opening the data set file.
3.2. Objective
A plug-in provides the ability to capture scan data directly from the scanner into the
Geomagic application.
Available Plug-ins from Geomagic Support Website

Company Hardware Support (Plug-in)
FARO Laser ScanArm, Laser Tracker
HandyScan 3D HandyScan
Kreon Zephyr
Leica Geosystems Lecia T-Scan using Leica Tracker
Konica Minolta Vivid 3D Digitizer
Perceptron Contour Probe
Steinbichler T-Scan using NDI OptpTrak system
Steintek MobileScan3D Scanner
There may be other Geomagic Studio plug-ins available directly from your hardware
provider, please contact them if you do not see your hardware listed.

4. Getting Started With Geomagic Studio
4.1. Overview
Geomagic Studio is a powerful digital shape reconstruction application that has an easy to
follow workflow. This section describes:
• Starting the Geomagic Studio Application
• Overview of the graphical user interface
4.2. Starting Geomagic Studio

There are two methods of starting the Geomagic Studio application;
Step 1 - From the Start Menu

a) Click Start > Programs > Geomagic > Geomagic Studio 10.
Step 2 - From the Desktop icon
b) Double-click the Geomagic Studio icon located on the desktop.

4.3. Main Application Window
The application window is divided into several areas:
Figure 9 - Geomagic Studio 10
Viewing Area
Displays the object that is highlighted in the Model Manager
Menu Bar
Offers access to all commands in the application
Toolbars
Contain icons that are shortcuts to commonly used commands
Manager Panel
Contains tabbed categories of controls and indicators

Tabs available in the Manager Panel
Model Manager – presents a hierarchical structure of objects that are currently
loaded in the application.
Primitives Manager – controls properties of the Viewing Area that are specific to
various objects.
Texture Manager – controls the superimposition of pre-defined images on the

object, primarily for enhanced viewing of the object.
Display Manager – controls properties of the Viewing Area.
Dialog Manager – presents controls and indicators for the commands that are
accessible through toolbars and the menu bar.
Batch Processing Manager – specifies the input and output locations of files to be
processed in batch. (Only available when File > Batch Processing is picked.)
Overlay
This area provides information on the Model Info, on the Bounding Box size, and with
regards to current Memory usage. Display is controlled via the Display Manager tab.
Axes Indicator
The Axes Indicator displays the current orientation of the model relative to the World
Coordinate system. (This is not coordinate system 0, 0, 0.)
Status Text
Provides information to you on what the system is doing and what task you are able to
perform.
Progress Meter
The Progress Meter displays the progress of an operation.
Clock
The clock displays the current system time.

4.4. Mouse Controls
Right-Hand Mouse is shown.
MB1 • Single click selects most widgets on the user
interface and elements of the active object.
• Click and drag selects regions of the active
object.
• Click and vertical drag within a numeric field will
increase or decrease the value.
CTRL+MB1 Deselect Object
ALT+MB1 Lighting
SHIFT+MB1 Set active model (when working with multiple models)
Scroll Wheel • Zoom – To zoom in (or out) on any portion of

the object in the Viewing Area, put the mouse
cursor on the point of interest and use the scroll
wheel.
• Increases or decreases the value in a numeric
field when the mouse cursor is located within
the numeric field. Value increases or decreases
based on the cursor’s position within the
number.
MB2
• Click and drag rotates an object in the
Viewing Area. (Move Camera)
• Click and drag rotates the object’s position

in coordinate space. (Move Model)
CTRL+MB2 Set multiple active models.
ALT+MB2 Pan
SHIFT+CTRL+MB2 Move Model
MB3 Single click accesses the “pop-up menu” which contains

a context-sensitive set of frequently needed commands.
CTRL+MB3 Rotate
ALT+MB3 Pan
SHIFT+MB3 Zoom
Right-Hand Mouse Arrangement:

MB1, Left Mouse Button; MB2, Middle Mouse Button; MB3, Right Mouse Button
Left-Hand Mouse Arrangement:

MB1, Right Mouse Button; MB2, Middle Mouse Button; MB3, Left Mouse Button

4.5. Hot Keys
Listed in the table are the default Hot Keys. These hot keys will allow you to access certain
commands quickly without selecting the command from the Menu Bar or a Tool Bar.
Keys Command
CTRL+N File > New
CTRL+O File > Open
CTRL+S File > Save
CTRL+Z Edit > Undo

CTRL+Y Edit > Redo
CTRL+T Edit > Selection Tools > Rectangle
CTRL+L Edit > Selection Tools > Line
CTRL+P Edit > Selection Tools > Paintbrush
CTRL+U Edit > Select > Custom Region
CTRL+A Edit > Select All
CTRL+C Edit > Clear All
CTRL+V Edit > Select Visible Only
CTRL+G Edit > Select Through
CTRL+D View > Fit Model to View

CTRL+F View > Set Rotation Center
CTRL+R View > Reset > Current View
CTRL+B View > Reset > Bounding Box
CTRL+X Tools > Options
F1 Help > What’s This (Place cursor over command of interest.)

F12 Toggle On/Off Transparency
Esc Interrupt Operation
CTRL+SHIFT+X Tools > Macros > Execute

CTRL+SHIFT+E Tools > Macros > End
DEL Delete, Delete Polygons, Delete Faces, Delete Curves, Delete Surfaces, Delete
Patches
Spacebar Apply/OK
ALT+0 View > Object > Hide All

ALT+1 View > Object > Hide Inactive
ALT+2 View > Object > Hide/Show Next
ALT+3 View > Object > Hide/Show Prev
ALT+4 Tools > Features > Show All Features
ALT+5 Tools > Features > Hide All Features
ALT+7 Tools > Datums > Toggle All Datums
ALT+8 Edit > Select All Objects
ALT+9 View > Object > Show All

4.6. The Options Panel
Tools > Options allows certain default settings to be modified. Many of these settings are for
the advanced users only. The more frequently used options are:
General
Directories
Define the default directories for opening, saving, macros, working, and screen captures.
Themes
Customize the appearance of the interface by changing colors, creating custom hot keys, and changing the size
of the toolbars. Define the location of the OK, Cancel buttons.
File I/O
File import controls. Define the default units as well as the working units. Controls for Load Options when
working with large data.
Language and Fonts
Define application language along with the size and type of fonts used within the product.
Memory
Controls how the application allocates memory.
Miscellaneous
Contains controls for command logging, the macro server, and import/export of the option settings.
Operations
Auto Surface
Define the default setting for the Auto Surface command.
Registration
Defines the default settings used in the Manual Registration and Global Registration commands. It is
recommended that these settings not be changed.
Display
Accessories
Change the background display of the Viewing Area and control datum/feature label display. Define the
orientation of the Front view as it relates to the Y or Z axis.
Navigation
Select from spherical, planar, and fly navigational mode.
Selection
Modify pick box size, line size, and paint brush diameter.
Graphics
OpenGL
Controls some graphics settings for various graphic cards.
Primitive Settings
Controls display settings of various vertices, triangles, points, and cells.
Snapshots
Controls the parameters used with the Snapshot command.
Hardware
Spaceball
Enable the Spaceball and modify Spaceball parameters.

4.7. File I/O Formats
The following is the default list of available data formats. Please check the Support website
for available importer if your systems formats is not listed.
Format I/O Format I/O
ASCII Points (.asc) I Wavefront (.obj) I/O

Geomagic Wrap (.wrp) I/O GeomView File (.oogl) O
ShapeGrabber (.3pi) I Open Technologies (.opt) I
3D Studio (.3ds) I/O 3D Scanners (.sab2) I
Steinbichler (.ac) I LDI/Normals (.pcn) I
Perceptron (.bin; .swl) I Dr. PICZA (.pix) I
Breuckmann (.bre) I PLY (.ply) I/O
CogniTens (.xyzn) I 3D Digital (.pmj; .pmjx) I
Pulsetech (.cop) I LDI/Datascuplt (.scn) I
Kreon (.cwk) I 3D Systems (.slc) I
Digibotics (.dbt) I STL – ASCII/Binary (.stl) I/O
Dimensional Photonics (.dpi) I Vertex Files (.vtx) I/O
AutoCAD DXF (.dxf) I/O Minolta (.vvd; .cam; .cdm) I
Geomagic Point Data (.gpd) I VRML(.wrl) I/O
GOM (.g3d; .surf) I Opton (.xyz) I
CDK (.cdk) I Scantech (.stb) I
ZF (.zfs) I STEP 203/214 (.stp; .step) I/O
Genex (.gti) I Pro/E Part (.prt; .prt [0-9]) I
Hymarc (.hym) I VDA (.vda) I
SolutionX (.icv) I SAT (.sat) I
IGES (.igs; .iges) I/O Neutral (.neu) I
Nastran (.nas) I Parasoild (.x_b; .x_t) I
LightWave (.lw; .lwo) I CATIA v4 (.model) I
Metron (.met; .mtn) I CATIA v5 (.catpart) I
Laser Design (.mgp) I Open Inventor (.iv) I/O
InSpeck (.net) I SolidWorks (.sldprt) I
Unigraphics (.prt) I
Any ASCII text file with three numbers per line can be read in as a set of XYZ
coordinates. CATIA v4 & v5, Unigraphics, and SolidWorks native formats requires optional
translator available for purchase from Geomagic.

4.8. Getting Help
For details on every control and indicator in every command, place the cursor on a menu
item or in a command dialog and press F1.
Figure 10 - On-line Help

Activity – Opening an existing .wrp file
Objective
Open an existing Geomagic Studio model (containing one or more objects).
Files
TR-S10-001.wrp
Open existing .wrp file

Step 1 - Open the TR-S10-001.wrp file.
a) Click File > Open or click the Open a File icon.
b) If necessary, use the Open Files dialog to navigate to the folder where the
file resides. Choose TR-S10-001.wrp from the Open Files dialog.
c) Click Open. The file is loaded and displayed in the viewing Area.
END OF ACTIVITY

Activity – Learning the User Interface
Objective
To familiarize yourself with the Geomagic Studio interface; to rotate, zoom and pan an
object in the Viewing Area, and; to select specific parts of an object for further processing.
Files
TR-S10-001.wrp
Mouse Navigation
Step 1 - Change the orientation of the object in the Viewing Area by using the
rotate function on the mouse.
a) Place cursor in the Viewing Area.
b) Press and hold the middle mouse button.
c) Move the mouse in the Viewing Area to rotate the object.
You can also rotate by pressing the CTRL key and holding down the right-
mouse button while moving the mouse in the Viewing Area.
The default center of rotation is about the centroid of all active objects.
Step 2 - Change the position of the object in the view by using the pan
function on the mouse.
a) Place cursor in the Viewing Area.
b) Press the ALT key and hold down the right-mouse button.
c) Move the mouse right or left to pan from one side to the other. Move the mouse
away or towards you to pan from top to bottom.
Step 3 - Change the scale of the object Viewing Area by using the zoom
function.
a) Place cursor in the Viewing Area at location of interest.
b) Use the scroll-wheel to zoom in, by rolling the scroll-wheel towards you. To zoom
out, roll the scroll-wheel away from you.
If the mouse has no scroll-wheel, press the SHIFT key and hold down the
right-mouse button. Move the mouse to zoom in and out.

View Control
Step 4 - The center of rotation is typically the centroid of the object. To
designate a new center of rotation.
a) Click View > Set Rotation Center or click the Set Rotation Center icon. The
cursor shape changes.
b) Click a location on the object in the Viewing Area.
c) Rotate the object again. Notice how the object rotates about the designated
point.
Set Rotation Center is also available on the right-mouse button popup menu
or by CTRL+F.
Step 5 - Alternative method of zooming – by using Magnify In.

a) Click View > Magnify In or click the Magnify In icon. The cursor shape
changes.
b) Click a location in Viewing Area with left-mouse button, and hold the button
down. This designates a corner of the zoom box.
c) Drag cursor to define second corner of zoom box. As you move the cursor, a box
indicates the area to be zoomed.
d) Release left-mouse button. The Viewing Area is updated.
Magnify In command is also available on the right-mouse button popup

menu.
Step 6 - To cause the object to fill the entire Viewing Area.

a) Click View > Fit Model to View or click the Fit Model to View icon.
Fit Model to View command is also available on the right-mouse button

popup menu or by CTRL+D.
Step 7 - To restore the object’s center of rotation to its centroid.

a) Click View > Reset Rotation Center. The active object now rotates about its
centroid.
Reset Rotation Center command is also available on the right-mouse button

popup menu.
There are many time-saving shortcuts on the right-mouse button popup

menu.

Step 8 - Use the seven predefined Views. Each represents a different viewing
angle with respect to the World Axes.
a) Click each icon to cycle through each available view. Notice the blue label in the
top left corner of the Viewing Area displays the name of the active view.
b) Click the Front View icon.
Selection Tools and Delete

Step 9 - Experiment with the selection tools icons that appear on the right
side of the Viewing Area (Rectangle, Ellipse, Line, Paintbrush, Lasso &
Custom Region).
a) Click Edit > Select Visible Only or click the Select Visible Only icon. This
causes the selection tools to capture only the elements that are visible to the
user’s eye, but not the portions that are obscured from view.
b) Place the cursor on the object. Press and hold the left-mouse button.
c) Drag cursor to define second corner of selection zone. As you move the cursor,
a rectangular box is indicates the area to be selected. (The Rectangle selection
tool should be active by default.)
d) Release the left-mouse button. The polygons in the selection zone turn red,
indicating that they are selected for future processing.
If some elements of an object are selected by accident, de-select them by

holding the CTRL key while using the selection tools.
e) Delete the selected elements by clicking Polygons > Delete Polygons or click
the Delete icon.
The Delete key on the keyboard also deletes selected elements.
Use Edit > Undo to recover the most recently deleted element of the object.
Step 10 - Try selecting and deleting additional elements by using the Ellipse,
Line, Paint Brush, Lasso, and Custom Region selection tools.
a) Click Edit > Selection Tools > or select one of the tools from the Selection
Tools toolbar located to the right of the Viewing Area.
b) Select elements of the object in Viewing Area.
Remember to use zoom, pan, and rotate to help in the selection process.
c) Click Polygons > Delete Polygons to delete selected elements.

Figure 11 - Example of selected elements
Step 11 - Click Edit > Undo to restore the elements you deleted in the
previous step.
The Undo command reverses the one most recent operation, but not
more than one.
Step 12 - Click Edit > Select Through or click the Select Through icon, and
again select some elements on the object.
Rotate the object around to view the side. Notice that Select Through
causes selection tools to affect all elements within the selection boundary,
not just those visible on screen.
Figure 12 - Initial Selection Figure 13 - Result of Selection

Step 13 - Rotate the object as shown
in Figure 14.
Figure 14
Step 14 - Click Edit > Backfaces

Mode or click the Backfaces
Mode icon.
In this mode, the selection tools

affect elements whose back sides
are visible. See Figure 16 and
Figure 17
The blue side of a polygon is

the positive (front) side; the
yellow side is the negative (back)
Figure 15 - Selected Area
side.
Figure 16 - Backfaces Mode: ON Figure 17 - Backfaces Mode: OFF
Step 15 - Set the view to Front.

a) Click View > Predefined Views > Front or click the Front icon in the
Predefined Views toolbar.
Step 16 - Press Ctrl+C (the same as Edit > Clear All) to clear all selections.

Step 17 - From the Selection toolbar, choose the Custom Region Mode icon.
This selection tool allows you to select elements that lie inside a closed
loop.
Step 18 - Rotate the object as shown

in Figure 18. Click a set of points
as shown in Figure 19. To close
the loop, click the starting point
again or simply press the Space
bar.
Figure 18
Figure 19 Figure 20
Step 19 - When the loop is closed, all interior elements become selected (red)
including elements inside the loop that are not visible to the user, such as
undercuts or back-draft conditions. Rotate the object slightly to see that
invisible elements were selected, too. This is a very useful command,
especially for selecting the typically bad data near a hole. To select
another set of elements, click the Custom Region Mode icon again.
(The need to click the icon again makes this selection tool different from
the others.)
Step 20 - Press Ctrl+C to clear the selection.

Manager Panel - Display Manager Tab
Step 21 - The Display Manager tab contains useful display options such as
the Axes Indicator. The Axes Indicator is the XYZ axis that appears in
the lower right corner of the Viewing Area to represent the current
orientation of the World Axes.
a) Select the Display Manager tab.
b) Place a checkmark in the Axes Indicator checkbox.
c) Remove checkmark to hide display of the axes.
Step 22 - To visualize the overall size

of an object, activate the
background grid.
a) Place a checkmark in the
Background Grid checkbox.
A grid appears behind the

object in the Viewing Area. If
necessary, zoom out to see
the complete grid.
Figure 21 - Background Grid
Step 23 - Cycle through the predefined view.

a) Click each predefined view icon. Notice how the background grid is
affected by various viewing angles.
If the Isometric view does not show the grid, turn ON the 2 Panel
parameters under Options on the Display Manager tab.
Figure 22 - Back Only Figure 23 - 2 Panel

Step 24 - Modify the display parameters of the background grid.
a) Click Options button. The Background Grid Setup dialog is displayed.
b) Select the 2 Panel radio button, if not currently selected.
The Back Only setting displays a grid when viewing one of the pre-
defined views. The 2 Panel setting displays two grid panels unless
viewing one of the pre-defined views, in which case only a single panel
grid will be displayed.
c) Change X-Axis parameters.

o Min, –8.0
o Max, 5.0
o Spacing, 0.5
After entering the value, press Enter on the keyboard.
d) Click OK.
Step 25 - Turn off the background grid.

a) Remove the checkmark from the Background Grid checkbox.
Step 26 - Set the view to front.

a) Click View > Predefined Views > Front or click the Front icon in
the Predefined Views toolbar.
Manager Panel – Display Manager Tab

Step 27 - Clip the displayed object to view inside and change the view to
isometric.
a) Place a checkmark in the Front Plane checkbox on the Display
Manager tab.
b) Click View > Predefined Views > Isometric or select the

Isometric icon in the Predefined Views toolbar.
c) Adjust the Depth value to change the position of the Front Plane,
which is shown in red. Parts of the object are clipped (hidden from
view).
This command is useful for looking inside closed objects.

Figure 24 - Front Plane Figure 25 - Front Plane, Clip Only
Step 28 - Change the orientation of the front clipping plane.

a) Remove checkmark from the Front Plane checkbox.
b) Rotate the object in the Viewing Area.
c) Place checkmark in the Front Plane checkbox.

Notice how the plane becomes parallel to the screen.
d) Adjust the Depth value to see the results.
To quickly adjust any value input field, place the cursor in the input
field. Press and hold the left-mouse button. Move the mouse up and
down on the screen to adjust the value.
Step 29 - Remove front plane.

a) Remove checkmark from the Front Plane checkbox.
Step 30 - The Overlay section of the Display Manager tab controls the display
of information that shows up in the lower left corner of the Viewing Area.
a) Place a checkmark in the Memory, Model Info, and Bounding Box
checkbox. Note the information that pops into the Viewing Area.
Memory displays the current amount of memory available plus the

amount being used. The amount of Virtual Memory is also displayed.
Model Info displays the total number of elements (points, polygons,

etc.) in the active object, plus the number of currently selected
elements.
Bounding Box displays the overall size of the active object in terms
of X, Y, and Z coordinates. Short displays only the overall XYZ size
value.
To view the bounding box, place a checkmark in the Bounding Box

checkbox on the Primitives Manager tab. It is recommended that
the Model Info be turned on. The information provided is helpful
when editing the objects.
Step 31 - The Display % [Static / Dynamic] section limits the amounts of

data visible when at rest (static) or when moved (dynamic) with rotate,
zoom, or pan.
This will increase the rendering speed, which is useful when working
with large scan data files.
Manager Panel – Dialog Manager Tab

Step 32 - The Dialog Manager tab displays the dialog associated with every
command on the menu. If no command is active, then this panel is
empty. When a command is active but the Dialog Manager tab has been
hidden, an indicator in the lower right corner of the window informs
(reminds) you that a dialog is active but not visible. Click the Dialog
Manager tab or the indicator to re-display the dialog of the active
command.
Figure 26 - Dialog Active Indicator
DO NOT select the Close Manager Panel icon when a dialog is active. If you
accidentally close the Manager Panel while a dialog is active, restore the Manager
Panel by right-clicking the toolbar area, then click Panels > Manager Panel > Default.

Customize the Interface
Step 33 - To customize the toolbars,
right-click the empty space to the
right of the toolbars. A right-click
menu pops up.
Step 34 - Click Customize.
Step 35 - Click the Commands tab. Drag any command listed to one of the
toolbars. To customize the right-mouse button menu, dragging the
commands to the Right Mouse Menu panel.
Step 36 - Click OK.
Customize the Options

Step 37 - Change the Dialog Button position.
a) Click Tools > Options.
b) Click General > Themes.
c) Select the Top radio button under Dialog Visualization. This will
reposition the OK, Cancel, and Apply buttons to the top of the
dialog. See Figure 27 and Figure 28.

Figure 27 - Bottom Figure 28 - Top
Step 38 - Change default orientation of Axes Indicator in the Front View.

a) Click Display > Accessories.
b) Select the Z is Up radio button under Front View Orientation. This will
change the view orientation to being more CAD-like. Top view is
looking down the Z-Axis at the XY-Plane.
Step 39 - Click OK.
END OF ACTIVITY

5. Data Registration Fundamentals
5.1. Overview
Geomagic Studio can register and merge several partial scans to yield a complete object, so
it does not rely on the scanning device to input a complete object. The ability to register and
merge point clouds is a tremendous advantage of the Geomagic product because it allows a
wide range of lower-capability scanners and digitizers to be compatible with the software.
5.2. Objective
Take multiple (two or more) scans that are not aligned and align them.
5.3. Commands
• Manual Registration
• Global Registration
• Merge
• Merge Point Objects (Point Phase Only)
• Merge Polygon Objects (Polygon Phase Only)

Activity – Data Registration (Points)
Objective
Align multiple, overlapping scans of an object using the Manual Registration command.
Refine the alignment using Global Registration and merge the individual scans into a single
object.
Files
TR-S10-003a.wrp
TR-S10-003b.wrp
Open Data
Step 1 - Open file TR-S10-003a.wrp.
These particular scans were taken
with a scanner which outputs
ordered data, meaning the point
cloud is formatted in a grid-like
arrangement. Geomagic Studio
takes advantage of ordered data
to optimize the data quality and
more quickly render and process
the scans
Step 2 - Here is an overview of the steps to create a single polygonal model

from unaligned scans. First, you will roughly align the scans to place
them in the same orientation. Next, you will perform a global, tolerance-
based alignment to minimize deviation between scans. Finally, the best
data collected from each of the scans will be merged into a single polygon
model.
Step 3 - Highlight all 6 scans in the
Model Manager panel on the left
side of the screen by holding
CTRL while selecting the objects.
You can also press ALT+8

(Edit > Select All Objects) to
select all objects in the tree.

Step 4 - Click View > Magnify In or click the Magnify In icon and zoom in
on one of the scans. You will notice that the scan data is represented not
by a point cloud, but rather by rectangular entities called cells. Since the
data is ordered, it is simple to render the grid of points as rectangular
cells rather than just points. This makes registration and editing much
easier.
Simple ASCII or XYZ point clouds will not be recognized as ordered

data.
Step 5 - Press CTRL+D to fit the model to the entire screen.
Change Display Parameters

Step 6 - On the Display Panel on the left side of the screen there are
controls for changing the percentage of displayed points and polygons.
Set the value in the dropdown menu for Display % Dynamic - Cells to
25%.
This setting is invaluable for working with large datasets. You can
choose to only display a specified percentage of the data during rotation.
Step 7 - From the same section, you may also choose to set the Display %
Static - Cells and select a value in the dropdown menu. This setting
controls the percentage of data that is displayed statically, or when the
object is not rotating.
It is important to note that all calculations for the registration and

merging, however, will use the entire data set, regardless of this setting.
Step 8 - For this activity, leave the Display % Static Cell set to 100%, or
set it no less than 50% since these data sets are not excessively large.
Step 9 - With all 6 scans still selected in the tree, click Points > Filter
Points. This command filters each scan to remove data based on the
angle between each surface normal vector and the z-axis of the scanning
device’s coordinate system. Enter 75.0 into the Angle field and click OK.
This command is only available when working with ordered data.

Step 10 - In the Model Manager
panel, select only the scan called
clip-upper2. To hide all other
scans, press ALT+1, which is the
hotkey for View > Objects >
Hide Inactive. There should only
be one scan (clip-upper2) visible
on screen.
Step 11 - Notice that there are several small “islands” of points, or portions of
the scan that are detached from the main scan. It occurred in this scan
because the digitizer inadvertently scanned a portion of the opposite side
of the clip.
Delete Extra Scan Data

Step 12 - Click Edit > Select > By Area to automatically detect and remove
these small, undesired portions of the scan. In the dialog that appears,
enter 5.0 in the Percent box. Click Apply. Several of the small segments
will get selected. This command selects pieces of the scan that contain
less than the specified percentage of that scan’s total area.
Step 13 - Click OK. The small segments are still selected so click Points >
Delete or click the Delete icon.
This command can also be run on all scans at one time by selecting all
the scans and repeating the above steps.
Step 14 - Now that the data has been filtered and edited, you can begin to
align the scans. To align these six scans, first make sure they are
selected in the Model Manager panel. Use ALT+8 to selecting all
objects or click Edit > Select All Objects.
Manual Registration
Step 15 - Click Tools > Registration > Manual Registration or click the
Manual Registration icon. This command allows you to roughly align
multiple scans by picking areas where two scans overlap.

Step 16 - From the Fixed menu box,
select clip-upper1. The scan
data will turn red and appear in
the top left frame, (Fixed). Now,
from the Floating menu box,
choose clip-upper2. The scan
will be colored green and appear
in the top right frame, Floating.
Your screen should resemble the
image to the right.
Step 17 - Select the 1-Point Registration radio button.
Step 18 - Rotate each of the two top views until they are in the same
orientation, as shown below. It is important that their orientations be
similar when using 1-Point Registration, otherwise the registration may
not work correctly.
Step 19 - Pick a point on the Fixed scan (red) that is visible in the Floating
scan (green). In this example, use the embossed number “10” visible in
both scans. The key to getting a good alignment is to try and select the
point pairs so that they are in almost exactly the same position on the
part.
If you accidentally pick the wrong point, simply click CTRL+Z to undo
the last selection.
Step 20 - Once the two points are picked, the software will automatically try
to fit the two scans together. If the model orientations were similar and
the points you picked were close, the bottom window should update to
show the aligned scans, as shown at left below. If the two scans do not

appear to be properly aligned but are pretty close, try clicking the
Register button to refine the fit. If as they are just too far apart, then
you probably did not select the points well enough and need to try again.
If so, click Unregister in the dialog and to move the scans back to their
original position.
Good Bad
Step 21 - When satisfied with your registration, click the Next button.. This
will accept the current registration and add the two scans to a group, if
there is a checkmark in the Add to Group checkbox. In this example,
you will have a checkmark and use the default name “Group 1”. You will
notice that “Group 1” is automatically highlighted in the Fixed menu box
after clicking Next.
Step 22 - In the Floating menu box, select clip-upper3. Again, rotate the two
so that the Fixed and Floating windows are in similar orientations. When
they are, pick a common point on each, perhaps using the number “10”
again.
Step 23 - Click Next after successfully registering this scan to add clip-
upper3 to Group 1.
Step 24 - Continue registering the

remaining scans until all six are
aligned. You might try
experimenting with n-Point
Registration, which is similar to
1-Point Registration, except that
you are not required to orient the
two views first. Also, you must
pick 3 or more points of overlap
on each scan rather than just one.

Step 25 - Once the registration of all
six scans is complete, Click OK.
You will notice in the Model
Manager panel that the six scans
have been placed in Group 1. It
is now time to import the scans of
the bottom half of this part and
register the top and bottom
halves.
Step 26 - From the Primitives panel on the left side of the screen, place
checkmark in the Object Color checkbox. This assigns a random color to
each scan that makes it easier to see how well the scans are aligned at
this point.
Import New Data for Registration

Step 27 - Click File > Import and browse to the file TR-S10-003b.wrp.
After loading, you will notice that these four new scans come in already
aligned with each other and reside in a group called Group2-
LowerScans.
Step 28 - Select both groups in the Model Manager panel. Click Tools >
Registration > Manual Registration or click the Manual Registration
icon to register the upper and lower halves of this part.
Step 29 - Select Group 1 for the Fixed window and Group2-LowerScans

for the Floating window. Choose 1-Point Registration and rotate the
two models so that they appear in a similar orientation.
Step 30 - Pick a common point between the two, perhaps the embossed
number “20” that is visible in both sets of data.

Step 31 - Once the points are picked,
the groups should be registered
and now all 10 scans are roughly
aligned. Click Register, if needed.
Click OK to exit.
Global Registration
Step 32 - Click Tools > Registration > Global Registration or click the
Global Registration icon. This command takes the roughly aligned
scans and refines the alignment to minimize deviation between scans.
Step 33 - In the dialog that appears, simply click Apply. Several iterations of
an alignment algorithm are run to more closely align the scans. Statistics
will be reported in the dialog after each scan so the user knows the status
of the current alignment.
Hitting Esc key at any time during the calculation will stop the
command after the current iteration.
Step 34 - The operation will terminate when one of three things happen:
a) The desired tolerance is achieved.
b) The number of maximum iterations is performed.
c) A specified number of iterations are run without convergence.
When the command stops, the system will display the deviation per

scan if there is a checkmark in the Per Scan checkbox.
Step 35 - To inspect the scans and see how they related to each, click the
Analysis icon.
Step 36 - Set the Density value to

Full and click Compute.
Once the system is done

processing (this may take some
time to complete, to speed the
process up, set the Density value
to something other than Full) the
Viewing Area will display how
each scan related to its neighbor.
This is very useful in reviewing
the scans to see if one of the
scans is causing the rest to be out
of alignment. If so, then you can
remove this scan from the Global
Registration and register after the
others.
Step 37 - Select the Single Object radio button, and then use the arrow
buttons to cycle through each scan.
Step 38 - After reviewing each scan, click OK to accept the registration.
Step 39 - Now that all the scans are closely aligned, it is time to merge the
scans together.
Merge Scans
Step 40 - With all scans still selected in the Model Manager, click Points >
Merge or click the Merge icon.
Step 41 - Set the Local Noise Reduction to None since the individual scans
are of relatively low noise. Setting this to Min, Medium, or Max would
help smooth out the data in each scan.
Step 42 - Next, remove the checkmark from the Global Registration

checkbox since you have already completed this step. In the future, you
can save yourself a step by performing Global Registration here instead of
as a separate step.

Step 43 - Set the Global Noise Reduction to Auto. This will enable the
software to automatically determine if any additional smoothing is
required after the merging process is complete. If so, then smoothing will
be applied.
Step 44 - In the Sampling group box,

set the slider bar at the middle
setting and click OK to begin the
Merge operation.
This may take several minutes

depending on the speed of your
computer. When complete, you
will have a single polygon object
resembling the one on the right.
Make sure the Display tab >

Display % Static is set to 100.
Otherwise your polygon mesh will
appear incomplete.
Step 45 - The Merge command performs several steps. Besides reducing the
noise of each scan and combining the scans into one mesh, it also
removes redundant, overlapping data. This “best data” calculation
decides which portions of each scan to keep based on the angle of each
surface normal vector to the z-axis of the scanning device’s coordinate
system.
Step 46 - To see the results of the

“best data” selection, click on
Group 1 in the Model Manager
panel and hit ALT+1 to hide the
polygon model. You will notice
portions of the scans are red, or
selected. These are the areas
found to be the “best data”.

Step 47 - To isolate and see just the
selected areas.
a) Click View > Selected Only.
b) Place a checkmark in the

Object Color checkbox on the
Primitives panel. You will see
the portions of each scan that
were used to make the final
merged model.
Step 48 - Click View > Entire Model to show the entire data set.
END OF ACTIVITY

6. Point Phase Fundamentals
6.1. Overview
When an object is in the Point Phase, you have the opportunity to improve the scanned
data. Noisy data can be improved, and intelligent sampling routines can be employed to
reduce the count of the point data. Unnecessary or erroneous data captured by the scanner
can be eliminated.
All cleanup procedures are optional, but a “cleaned” point set can be converted to a polygon
object more quickly and with higher quality.
6.2. Objective
Pre-process a point set so that eventual conversion to a polygon object is fast and accurate.
6.3. Commands
• Add, Crop, Delete points
• Select Outliers and Disconnected Components (Unordered Points Only)
• Reduce Noise
• Sample (Uniform, Curvature, Random, Ratio)
• Wrap

Activity – Point Cloud Editing (Unordered)
Objective
Learn to edit a point cloud. Improve the dataset by reducing the noise caused by scanners.
Use the various sampling commands to reduce the number of points while maintaining the
geometric shape.
Files
TR-S10-002.wrp
Open Existing .WRP File

Step 1 - Open TR-S10-002.wrp.
a) Click File > Open or click the
Open a File icon.
b) If necessary, use the Open

Files dialog to navigate to the
folder where the file resides.
Choose TR-S10-002.wrp
from the Open Files dialog.
c) Click Open. The file is

displayed in the Viewing Area.
Step 2 - To be able to rotate this object quickly, go to the Display Manager

tab on the left hand side of the screen and set the Display % Dynamic
– Points value to 25%. This means only 25% of the data will be visible
as you rotate, improving rendering speeds.
Step 3 - Set the view to Top.

a) Click View > Predefined Views > Top or click the Top View icon.

Step 4 - Zoom in on the points as
shown in Figure 29.
Figure 29
Delete Outliers Points

Step 5 - First, you must delete the stray points, known as outliers that exist
around the outside of the part. They are usually easy to identify as points
that are far away from the main point cloud and do not represent any
geometry that you want to keep. Outliers typically occur when digitizers,
such as laser scanners, inadvertently scan objects in the background,
such as tabletops and support structures.
Step 6 - Use the Lasso Tool to select

only those outliers, as shown in
Figure 30.
If you inadvertently select points

you do not want to delete, de-
select them by holding down the
CTRL key while dragging the
Lasso Tool around the them.
Figure 30
Step 7 - Delete selected (red) points.

a) Click Points > Delete or click the Delete icon to delete the selected
(red) points. The selected points disappear.

The Delete key on the keyboard performs the same function.
Step 8 - Fit object to Viewing Area.

a) Click View > Fit Model to View or click the Fit Model to View icon.
Hotkey CTRL+D will also fit the object to Viewing Area.
Delete Disconnected Components

Step 9 - Instead of manually deleting all these outliers, you can also let the
software detect them automatically.
a) Click Edit > Select > Disconnected Components or click the
Select Disconnected icon.
This command selects clusters of points that are separated from the
majority of the points.
b) Change the Separation dropdown menu to Low. This indicates how far
the clusters can be to the main cloud and still be selected.
c) Leave the Size value at 5.0. This determines how large the clusters
can be.
Thus, you asked the software to select any cluster of points with 5%
or less of the total number of points, with a relatively low separation
from the main cloud.
d) Click OK.
Step 10 - Delete selected (red) points.

a) Click Points > Delete or click the Delete icon.
Step 11 - Restore object to its previous state.

a) Click Edit > Undo or press CTRL+Z. This will restore all of the points
deleted in the previous step.
Reduce Noise
Step 12 - De-select all selected points.
a) Click Edit > Clear All, or press CTRL+C. The following is a brief
explanation of scan noise:
Step 13 - Here is a brief explanation of scan noise:
Frequently, during the scanning or digitizing process, an element of

“noise” is introduced into the data. “Noisy data” is identified by a rough,
uneven appearance in the surface model and is due to such factors as
vibrations in the scanning device, inaccurate scanner calibration, or poor
preparation of the physical object’s surface.
The Reduce Noise command helps to minimize the noise in a scan and
thus helps the scan represent the true shape of the object. Figure 31 and
Figure 32 show a typical polygon object before and after the noise
reduction process.
Figure 31 - With Noise Figure 32 - Noise Reduced
Step 14 - Reduce the noise in the point object.

a) Click Points > Reduce Noise or click the Reduce Noise icon.
b) Choose the Free-form Shapes radio button.

Use one of the Prismatic Shapes options if you have sharp edges or
small details to preserve.
c) Set the Smoothness Level as shown.
d) Set Deviation Limit value to 0.2 mm. This limits the movement of
data points during the smoothing process.
Step 15 - Define how to handle outlier points. Choose whether to select or

delete points that must move more than the specified limit.
a) Expand the Outliers group box.
b) Set the Threshold value to 0.075 mm.
c) Choose the Select radio button.

d) Place a checkmark in the Include Isolation Points checkbox. This
will automatically find and select disconnected components and
outliers, which are isolated from the point cloud.
e) Click Apply to begin the calculation.

Scanner-induced error is averaged to produce a smoother surface. The
Average Distance and Standard Deviation are reported in the Statistics
section.
Reduce Noise is best run on larger data sets (before doing any
sampling).
Step 16 - The red points, as shown in Figure 33 and Figure 34, represent the
outliers (points that are far away from the main point cloud, or points
that have had to move more than 0.1mm during the smoothing process).
These are the result of improper surface coating, an un-calibrated

digitizer, a bad “swipe” with the arm-mounted laser scanner, or an
unstable work table. Regardless of the causes, Reduce Noise will help
identify and correct many flaws.
Figure 33 Figure 34
Step 17 - Delete outliers, instead of selecting.

a) Choose the Delete radio button. This automatically deletes those bad
points. The entire object turns red.

Step 18 - Change the objects display
to visualize the amount of noise.
a) Expand the Display
Deviations group box.
A color spectrum appears in

the Viewing Area and the
points inherit colors based on
their relative deviations from
their original positions.
b) Set Max. Nominal to 0.05mm.

The display is updated where
any points moving less than
0.05mm will be displayed in
green.
Step 19 - To analyze whether the noise reduction is sufficient.

a) Collapse the Display Deviations group box.
b) Expand the Preview group box. This section expands and allows you
to select an area on the object to preview.
Preview Points specifics the number of points to be used to

generate the preview.
c) Select a location on the object for preview.
Figure 35 - Preview Sample
Step 20 - To see how the different settings impact the object.

a) Remove the checkmark from the Sampling checkbox. The preview

now shows how the object looks when no sampling is applied.
Sampling specifies the minimum distance between points.
b) Adjust the Smoothness Level. What happens to the object?
c) Choose the Prismatic shapes (conservative) radio button. How

does that affect the object?
d) Click the Selected Area button to define a new location to Preview.
Step 21 - Preview selected location

with deviations and a specified
sampling value.
a) Place a checkmark in the
Display Deviations
checkbox.
b) Place a checkmark in the

Sampling checkbox.
c) Set the value to 0.01 mm.
You can then use this value

when performing a Uniform
Sample later in the process.
Figure 36 - Preview with Deviation Display
Step 22 - Restore setting and exit the command.

a) Collapse the Preview group box.
b) Choose the Free-form Shape radio button.
c) Set the Smoothness Level as specified in earlier step.
d) Click Apply.
e) Click OK. Improvements are difficult to see because there is no

surface yet, but the data has been smoothed slightly and outliers
which could have caused a poor surface have been deleted.
Reduce Noise is not always required. It depends on the amount

of noise that exits in the data.

Uniform Sample
Step 23 - To reduce the number of points but maintains an accurate
representation of the part.
a) Click Points > Uniform Sample or click the Uniform Sample icon.
Uniform Sample is only 1 of 4 available sampling commands. The

other three can be found under the Points menu.
b) Choose the Define Spacing By Target radio button to define the

ideal distance between points.
• Absolute – by specifying an exact distance
• Define Spacing by Selection – by clicking two points that whose distance from
each other is equal to the ideal distance
• Define Spacing by Target – by specifying a total number of points and letting the
software determine the distance between points.
c) Set the number of Points to 250,000
Step 24 - Maintain more points in area of high curvature where more detail is
needed, such as fillets and corners.
a) Set the Curvature Priority slider bar under Optimize to Med.
Step 25 - To prevent the loss of points near boundaries where precision is

important, place a checkmark in the Keep Boundary checkbox.
Step 26 - Click Apply. When computation is complete, points are evenly

distributed on the object’s surface.
Step 27 - Click OK.
Wrap – Create a polygon object

Step 28 - Create a polygon object from the active point object.
a) Click Points > Wrap or click the Wrap icon.
b) Select the Surface radio button under Wrap Type.
The Volume option is useful for converting a sparse, non-uniform

point cloud to a polygon object (at the expense of performance).
Typically, use the Volume option only if the Surface option gives
inadequate results.

Step 29 - Define advance parameters before processing data.
a) Expand the Advanced Options group box. Here, as in some other
dialogs, you can perform multiple operations at one time, including
Uniform Sampling and Noise Reduction.
b) Set Noise Reduction to None.
c) Remove the checkmark from the Point Spacing checkbox.
d) Place a checkmark in the Target Triangles checkbox. This setting

allows you to choose whether Performance (speed, low memory
usage) or Quality (better polygon result) is more important. The
differences are:
• Performance - to optimize speed and memory consumption, the merged point

cloud is sampled before being converted to a polygon object.
• Quality - to insure the highest quality object, the full point set is converted and
then decimated to the Target Triangle count.
e) Set the Target Triangles to 150,000 and set the slider bar in the
middle.
To convert points to polygons without any pre- or post-processing,

remove the checkmarks from both the Spacing and Target Triangles
checkboxes. This simply “wraps” all the points.
Step 30 - Click OK to begin the

conversion to polygons.
When complete, your model

should resemble Figure 37. If
desired, use the Primitives panel
to display things like Holes and
Edges. The object is now in
Polygon Phase, so the set of icons
on the main toolbar has changed.
Figure 37
END OF ACTIVITY

7. Polygon Phase Fundamentals
7.1. Overview
When a point object has been sufficiently cleaned up, Points > Wrap can be used to convert
the point object to a polygon object. Points > Wrap offers two methods of converting a point
object into a polygon object:
• Surface wrapping – is designed for point data that is uniformly spaced and clearly
defines a complete surface. This method is generally fast, but produces holes in
objects where point data is incomplete on non-uniform.
When surface wrap is complete, the object exists as a polygon object in Polygon
Phase.
• Volume wrapping – is designed for point data that is not uniform or complete. The
system creates larger than average polygons to replicate the shape. This method
generally takes more time and memory, and results in a polygon mesh through every
point in the data.
If the object is volume-wrapped, the object enters a special phase called Wrap
Phase during which a special set of cleanup tools are functional. When Wrap Phase
is complete, the object exists as a polygon object in Polygon Phase.
7.2. Objective
Using Volume Wrap - Volume Wrap is the conversion of a point object to a polygon object,
with compensation for sparse point data by creating excessive polygons (even between
points where no surface is intended). The visible effect is usually a number of internal webs
(spurious polygons). Cleanup of a volume-wrapped object is required because the spurious
polygons would adversely affect subsequent phases of operation. When a volume-wrapped
object exists in the Model Manager, the Wrap menu appears. It contains special commands
for the cleanup of the spurious polygons.
Specifically, use the volume wrap technique to create a polygon mesh from a sparse or
incomplete point cloud, and then use the Wrap Phase tools to clean up spurious polygons
and create a usable polygon object.
Using Surface Wrap - When an object reaches the Polygon Phase (whether it was surface-
wrapped or volume-wrapped), many commands exist to adjust its polygon surface. These
commands include triangle deletion, multiple methods for smoothing the surface, hole filling,
and techniques for edge repair. “Decimation” is the process of reducing polygon count while
preserving critical surface structure. Rapid prototyping essentials (shelling, thickening and
offsetting polygon surfaces) are a mouse-click away. The Relax, Refine, Fill Holes,
Sharpening, Section By Plane, Offset Surface, Shell Surface, Thicken Surface and Relax/Fit
Boundary tools can change the coordinates of the point set and possibly add new points in
order to improve the surface.
Commands of the Polygon Phase are important because the object must be of a minimum
quality to be taken to the next phase, the Shape Phase, for the preparation of a NURBS
surface.

The commands and processes of the Shape Phase use the polygonal model as a reference.
Therefore, it is necessary that the polygonal model be sound and of a particular quality in
order to produce an accurate NURBS surface
7.3. Commands
• Decimate
• Relax
• Fill Holes
• Repair Intersections
• Edit Boundaries
• Sharping Wizard
• Section By Plane

Activity – Basic Polygon Processing
Objective
Learn how to repair a polygonal object. Replace missing data with the Fill Holes command,
smooth out rough portions of a model and reduce the number of triangles. Detect and repair
any intersecting triangles. Use Auto Surface to quickly create a surfaced object.
Files
TR-S10-004.wrp
Open Data
Step 2 - Click View > Predefined Views > Front or click the Front View
icon. There are several notable problems with this data set, including
numerous holes and the two large chunks of data on the surface that
need to be removed. These were lumps of clay that were stuck onto the
fairing prior to scanning to assist in data registration. This tutorial will
walk through the necessary steps for preparing raw scan data for
surfacing.
Step 3 - Click Tools > Datums > Toggle All Datums or click the Toggle All
Datums icon.
Step 4 - Click Polygons > Repair Intersections or click the Repair

Intersections icon to insure that the polygonal mesh does not contain
intersecting triangles, which could cause problems during surfacing.
Step 5 - There are three Modes available if the system finds any intersections.
Choose the Relax/Clean radio button, which will attempt to repair the
offending triangles by moving vertices until the mesh is somewhat flat.
Click Apply.
Step 6 - Click OK once repairs are complete.

Fill Holes
Step 7 - Click Polygons > Fill Holes or click the Fill Holes icon. The
Statistics section of the dialog says that there are 11 holes in the model.
You can fill holes one at a time, or all at once. Here, you will fill the three
smallest holes automatically, fill some others manually, and experiment
with some of the editing tools.
Step 8 - Click the Deselect Largest button on the dialog box twice. This will
tell the software to ignore the two largest holes, which in this case are
the outer boundary of the object and the boundary of the intake opening.
Notice the Statistics section now lists only nine holes.
Step 9 - Under the Method Input

section of the dialog, select the
Small Holes radio button. Set
the value for Circumference to
16.0 mm. Click the Fill All
button on the dialog and the three
small holes in the view shown will
be filled automatically.
The Small Holes setting is very
useful for quickly repairing areas
of missing data, based on size. In
this case, if the perimeter of the
hole is 16.0 mm or less, the hole
is filled.
Step 10 - Now that you have filled the small holes, it is time to repair the
larger holes. Select the All Holes radio button under Method Input. There
are now 6 holes remaining.
Step 11 - To find the holes needing to be filled, you will use the indexing tool
to cycle through each of the remaining six holes. To do so, click on the
right arrow button, located towards the bottom of the dialog.
Step 12 - The view will update to show you one of the holes. This makes it
easy to find and fill any holes in the model. Now click anywhere on the
red edge of the hole. The command will then fill the hole using a very
powerful, curvature-based approach. After filling, you can rotate the
model a little to see the quality of the filling operation.

Step 13 - Click the right arrow again to proceed to the next hole. This time,
the view should be of one of the large lumps of clay. Here you want to
remove the scan data of the clay, and fill the resulting hole. You can do
all of this within the hole-filling command.
Step 14 - Click the Clean Up icon under Fill Method. This brings up a new
set of options for deleting triangles. Make sure under the Selection
section that Triangles radio button is selected. This means you are in a
mode to select individual or groups of triangles.
Step 15 - Switch to the Lasso tool

from the selection toolbar. Now
select a region around the hole. It
is best to always select a little
more than you need.
Step 16 - Click the Delete Selection

button on the dialog. The selected
triangles are deleted. However,
because you were in the default
selection mode, Select Visible
Only, there is probably a good bit
of what is called “floating data”
left behind. This occurred because
when you use tools like the lasso
in Select Visible Only mode, only
those triangles, which are visible
at the time, get selected. Thus,
some of the ones that were on the

sides of the clay lump did not get
picked.
Step 17 - To delete the floating data, select the Floating Data radio button
and click the Delete Selection button. These small islands of data are
detected and deleted.
Step 18 - Click the Fill icon under the

Fill Method section. Click the
hole’s edge to fill it in. If unhappy
with the result, you can press
CTRL+Z to undo the fill, go back
to Clean-Up mode and delete
other triangles, and fill again.
Step 19 - Click the right arrow again to proceed to the next hole. You should
be taken to a view of the other clay lump. Do the same thing here as with
the previous lump. Delete the triangles around, remove the floating data,
and fill the hole.
Place a checkmark in the Hide Selection checkbox to display the filled

region as the normal blue color. This helps to better assess the quality of
a filling operation.
Step 20 - Continue filling the remaining holes in the same manner. All but one
will need to have surrounding triangles deleted because scan data was
collected on the inner walls of the holes. Experiment with the Boundary
Layer option in Selection mode found on the Clean-Up dialog. Click the
edge of a hole while in this mode and you will see one row of triangles
around the hole’s perimeter selected. Click the edge again, and another
row gets selected.
Step 21 - When you get to the point that the Statistics say there are zero
holes left to fill, click OK to exit the command. Your object should have
no holes other than the two large boundaries.
Step 22 - There is another very valuable tool in Fill Holes that is used quite
often, called Partial Hole filling. To experiment, go back into Polygons
> Fill Holes.

Step 23 - Zoom in on the area shown.
Click the Fill Partial icon under
the Fill Method section of the
dialog.
To insure the proper result, it is

very important that you select the
correct corners of the hole. To do
this, use the Magnify In tool to
really zoom in tight on the corners
before picking them. If you select
the wrong points, simply go to the
dialog and toggle the radio
buttons to reselect either the first
or second point again.
Step 24 - For the first point, click on

one corner, as indicated in
image to the right. Then click the
other corner to place the second
point. Finally, click the green
line to indicate which boundary to
fill. Note that the order in which
you select the two corner points is
not important.
Step 25 - The software will then fill in

the hole, but only between the
selected points. This is called
partial hole filling. Click OK to exit
the command.
Section By Plane
Step 26 - Now you will trim the model using an existing datum. Click
Polygons > Section By Plane or click the Section by Plane icon.
Step 27 - In the Align Plane dropdown menu, select Object Datum Plane.
Select Plane 1 in the list that appears. The transparent cutting plane will

be aligned with the orange datum plane.
To see the position of the datum plane, click the Toggle Datum
Planes icon in the Datum Visibility Operations toolbar.
Step 28 - Click the Intersect Plane button to cut through the polygon model.
Now click the Delete Selection button to delete the thin sliver of
highlighted triangles. This creates a nice, planar trimmed edge.
Step 29 - Click OK to exit the command. Now you will look at another way to
repair boundary edges.
Edit Boundaries
Step 30 - Click Boundaries > Edit or
click the Edit Boundary icon.
This command allows you to

select all or a portion of a
boundary and fit it to a spline.
Zoom in on the one of the
boundary edges of the model. You
will experiment on only a very
small portion of the boundary.

Step 31 - Select the Partial
Boundary radio button.
Now pick a start and end point

along the boundary.
Next, pick the green line between

the two points. This portion of the
boundary will turn white.
Step 32 - In the Control Points numeric field, enter a number of control

points to fit the highlighted boundary to. For example, if the segment you
selected has 75 control points, change the value to 25, and press Enter
on the keyboard to show a preview of the fitting.
A good rule of thumb is to reduce the number of Control Points by a

factor of 3 for light smoothing, and a factor of 10 for heavier smoothing.
Step 33 - Click the Execute button to refit the boundary and then click OK to
exit the command.
Decimate
Step 34 - Click Edit > Select All. The complete model is highlighted.
Step 35 - Place a checkmark in the Edges checkbox on the Primitives tab so

you can see the edges of the triangles. This will help you visualize what
happening model is when it gets decimated. All edges will be displayed in

green.
Step 36 - Now you can reduce the number of triangles by using the decimate
command. Click Polygons > Decimate or click the Decimate Polygons
icon.
Step 37 - Select the Triangle Count radio button under Reduction Mode.
Step 38 - In the Reduce to Percentage numeric field, enter 30.0, and then
click Apply. This will reduce the number of triangles in the model by
70%, while still maintaining excellent definition of small features and
detail.
Step 39 - If desired, experiment with this command by dropping the value

down to 5.0 and clicking Apply again, notice that with only 5% of the
original number of triangles, the shape of the fairing is still well
preserved. Decimate is a very useful tool for keeping file sizes small
while retaining full part definition.
Step 40 - Click the Reset button. This resets the model back to its original
condition. Now expand the Advanced group box.
Step 41 - Place a checkmark in the Curvature Priority checkbox and move

the slider bar the middle mark. This will cause the calculation to maintain
more triangles in the areas of high curvature.
210,000 Triangles 15,000 Triangles

(with edges visible) (with edges visible)
Step 42 - Before exiting, set the Percentage back to 30.0 and click Apply.
This will give you a model with approximately 210,000 triangles. Click OK
to exit.
Under the Advanced section, you are able to control the Maximum
Aspect Ratio of the triangles, which is useful when sending the resulting

data downstream CAE applications.
Relax
Step 43 - Remove the checkmark from the Edges checkbox on the Primitives
tab. Click Edit > Clear All to clear all selected triangles.
It is now time to smooth the surface to prepare it for surfacing. Poor

preparation of the physical part prior to scanning resulted in a rough
texture on the polygon model. This can be fixed by applying one of the
available smoothing tools.
Step 44 - Click Polygons > Relax or click the Relax icon. Move the slider bar
for Strength to the right about 2 clicks from Min, indicating about 35%
of full strength. Leave the top slider, for Smoothness Level, at its
default middle position. Click Apply to start the smoothing.
To use the “sandpaper” analogy, Strength is like the grit of the

sandpaper, and Smoothness Level is the number of times you rub over
the surface.
Step 45 - Examine the result. Move the Smoothness Level slider bar back
and forth to see the surface smooth in real-time. To change the
Strength, you have to press Reset, change the setting, and then press
Apply again.
Step 46 - Place a checkmark in the Display Deviations checkbox. This will

display how much the triangles have moved relative to their position
before invoking the command. This too will update in real-time as you
move the Smoothness Level slider bar.
Step 47 - Notice that the majority of

deviations are along edges, or
highly curved areas. This is
typical. However, if you think the
deviation along edges or curved
regions is too great, there is a
way to prevent this.
Click Cancel to undo the changes

made to the model.
Step 48 - You will now use a selection technique that will allow you to
preserve edge detail better. Click Edit > Select > By Curvature. When
the dialog appears, only edges, or highly curved areas, are selected. Feel
free to adjust the Sensitivity setting to see the result. Set the value to
about 0.4 and click OK.
Step 49 - Click Edit > Reverse

Selection, or Reverse Selection
from the right-mouse button
popup menu.
Your object should resemble the

image shown. What you have
done is essentially deselected the
area of highest curvatures of the
model to prevent loss of detail.
Now, when you use Relax
Polygons, only the selected
regions will be smoothed.
Step 50 - Click Polygons > Relax or click the Relax icon and repeat the
earlier steps in this section. You will notice that the edges are better
preserved using this technique. A comparison is below. This technique is
recommended if high accuracy is required.
Relax Entire Model Relax w/Preserved Edges
Shape Phase - Auto Surface

Step 51 - The steps undertaken in this activity represent the most commonly
used operations when working with a polygon mesh. To see an example
of how quickly surfaces can be applied, you will use the Auto Surface
command found in the Shape Phase.
a) Click Edit > Phase > Shape Phase.
b) Click OK to create a new patch layout.

Step 52 - Click Contours > Auto
Surface or click the Auto
Surface icon. This command will
fit a NURBS surface on the
polygon model.
a) Remove the checkmark from
the Use Detect Contours
checkbox. This informs the
software to use the Detect
Curvature method instead of
the Detect Contours method of
surfacing.
b) Click Apply to begin an 12-

step surfacing process of
surface. When complete, your
screen will display the
distinctive olive green surface
that was generated
automatically.
END OF ACTIVITY

8. Polygon Phase Advanced
8.1. Overview
In this section, you will learn to use other commands that are available in the Polygon
Phase.

Activity – Additional Polygon Features
Objective
Learn how to repair a polygonal object. Replace missing data with the Fill Holes command;
trim polygons using Section By Plane command, and use datums as reference. Smooth out
rough portions of the model and extend edges to create sharp corners.
Files
TR-S10-005.wrp
Open Data
Step 1 - Open TR-S10-005.wrp
Fill Hole
Step 2 - Rotate the model to view the
back, as shown in the image.
There is a rectangular hole that
needs to be filled.
a) Click Polygons > Fill Holes
or click the Fill Holes icon.
b) Select edge of hole to fill.
c) Click OK to dismiss the dialog

after filling this one hole. The
filled area’s shape is an
interpolation of the curvature
of the surrounding region.
Step 3 - Press CTRL+D to fit the view.

Defeature
Step 4 - Zoom in on the side of the joystick embossed with the words “Made
in USA” and remove them. From the selection toolbar on the right side of
the screen, click Edit > Select > Custom Region or click the Custom
Region Mode icon.
Click a series of points around the words, as shown below. A white

polyline will appear through the points you pick. To close the loop, either
press the spacebar, or click the starting point again. Once the loop is
closed, the area within will become red, or selected.
Step 5 - With the area selected, click Polygons > Defeature or click the
Defeature icon. The embossed area is removed, as shown at right
above. The Defeature command is very useful for removing unwanted
features of the model. The command basically deletes the selected region
and then performs a curvature-based hole fill.
Step 6 - Press CTRL+C to clear the selected region.
Sandpaper
Step 7 - Click Polygons > Sandpaper or click the Sandpaper icon. Leave
the Operation mode set to Relax and set the Strength slider bar to the
middle. This is an interactive smoothing command that allows you to
relax or smooth the model on the fly.

Step 8 - Place your cursor over one of the rough areas shown above, then
press and hold the left mouse button. A circular cursor will appear,
indicating the smoothing is in progress. Move the cursor back and forth
over the rough area until it disappears, as if you were rubbing your
thumb over a clay model. The cursor changes in size depending on the
underlying mesh resolution.
Step 9 - When finished smoothing, click OK to dismiss the dialog.
If you don’t like the appearance, you can click Reset while in the
command to restore the object back to its original state.
Relax
Step 10 - In addition to the interactive, localized smoothing of the
Sandpaper command, you can also smooth the entire model at one time
using a more global command, like Polygons > Relax.
Step 11 - Click Polygons > Relax or click the Relax icon. Set the Strength
value to the second or third notch on the slider bar and click Apply. After
a brief calculation, the object will appear noticeably smoother. Set the
Smoothness Level slider bar to Max and click OK to exit the command.

Sharpening
Step 12 - Press CTRL+C to clear all selections..
Step 13 - Now you will sharpen some of the edges of the model using an
intuitive wizard. Because scan data is not perfect, you must sometimes
use tools like Sharpening to extend surfaces to meet at a sharp edge
a) Click Polygons > Sharpening Wizard or click the Sharpening
Wizard icon. This command will walk you through the steps necessary
to extend edges and create sharp corners.
Step 14 - Click Compute Regions to

start the segmentation of the
model into regions of low
curvature. After a brief
calculation, the object will appear
as shown at right, with the areas
of highest curvature highlighted in
red. These areas are called
contour bands. The regions
between the contour bands
appear as different colored
regions. This makes it easier to
see the areas “roped off” by the
selection.

Step 15 - Adjust with the Curvature
Sensitivity setting by increasing
or decreasing the value to see the
changes. Now set the Curvature
Sensitivity to 60.0.
Click Compute Regions
For this object, this value gives us

the correct definition of edges.
However, you are only going to
sharpen a few of the edges, so
you must tell the software to
ignore some of the edges it
detected.
Step 16 - Use CTRL+Select to

deselect contour bands in areas
that should not be sharpened.
When complete, your model

should area as the image to the
right.
You can also use the icons

under Editing to help deselect
small regions or islands.

Step 17 - One of the nice features of
this command is that you can also
manually define areas to be
sharpened if they were not
detected properly. Choose the
Paintbrush selection tool from
the selection toolbar.
Now drag the paintbrush around

the bottom of the feature,
following the natural curve of the
part.
Step 18 - Once you have completed the selection such that there is a
continuous loop around the base of this feature, the colors will update to
show that you have successfully segmented this region
Step 19 - Now click the Extract

button and a series of orange
curves are fit through the contour
bands, representing the line of
highest curvature. Your model
should appear as shown in the
image.
Step 20 - Click the Next >> button. This will take you to the curve-editing
dialog that allows you to make minor changes to the curve fitting, if
necessary. Here you can also delete any curves that may have been
created erroneously

Step 21 - Click the Next >> button.
This will take you to a new dialog
where the tangent lines are
extended.
Click the Extend button and black

tangent lines will be generated on
the model. These tangent lines
represent the calculated inflection
line, or the region where the
model begins to rapidly change
curvature.
Changing the Factor to a higher

value (like 1.5) would extend
these lines further from the
orange curve. However, for this
activity, leave the Factor set to
the default of 1.0.
You can select one or more

tangent lines (black) and modify
the Factor value of the selected
tangent lines.
Step 22 - Click Next >> and once again you are presented with the curve
editing dialog. This is in case some manual modifications are needed to
the tangent lines. To experiment with this, zoom in on the corner shown
in the following image. Place your cursor over the green point indicated in
the image, and click the left mouse button to drag the point to a new
position, as shown in the right image.
Before Edit After Edit

Step 23 - The Influence setting controls how much of the curve moves when
editing it. If the Influence value is very small, only a small portion of the
curve will move while editing, and vice versa if the Influence value is
large. Typically, only very minor curve editing is necessary and in fact, for
this example, you do not need to edit anything.
If you move a point and are unhappy with the result, press CTRL+Z to
undo the change and try again.
Step 24 - Click Next >>. This takes

you to the final step in the wizard.
Click the Update Grid button.
A blue grid network is constructed

within the tangent lines. This is a
preview of how the new
sharpened polygons will look.
If you wish, you can click on

the magenta line that represents
the theoretical corner and you can
modify its fitting.
Step 25 - Click the Sharpen

Polygons button and the model
is updated with the defined areas
sharpened.
Step 26 - Click the OK button to exit the wizard and complete the sharpening
process.
You have recreated sharp edges on a model that did not have very good
edge definition after scanning. You will notice a red boundary is created
along each of the sharpened edges. It is important to point out that this
boundary can be used as a surface patch border in the Shape Phase.

Fit to Plane
Step 27 - Click the Magnify In icon
and zoom into the base of the
model and you will see that the
bottom region is not planar, as it
should be. This is because the
physical model was somewhat
warped and not truly flat. You can
correct for this by fitting the
region to a plane.
Step 28 - Select some triangles within

the bottom region that is not
planar.
Initial triangles selected
Step 29 - Click Edit > Select >

Bounded Components. This
command will select all the
triangles bounded by red
boundaries.
Triangles selected by Bounded

Components
Step 30 - With the entire face selected, click Polygons > Primitives > Fit to
Plane. A transparent plane is displayed. Select Best Fit from the
dropdown menu. The transparent plane is then fit to the selection.
Click OK and the entire selected region are flattened to a perfect plane.
Zoom in and examine the area to verify.
Step 31 - Press CTRL+C to clear the selected area.
Fit Hole
Step 32 - Now you will fit the three
holes on the front face of the
object to a specified radius.
a) Click Boundaries >
Create/Fit Hole.
b) Select the Fit Hole radio

button.
Click once near the edge of

one of the holes (green
boundary), as shown. An
arrow representing the normal
direction is visible on screen
and the radius of the hole is
detected.
c) Set Radius value to 9.5 mm.
Press enter to update the hole
size.
d) Click Execute and the hole will
be refit to a 9.5 mm radius.

Step 33 - Repeat the previous step for
each of the other two holes on the
front of the joystick, again using a
9.5 mm radius. When complete,
click OK. Your model should
resemble the image.
You can also save a datum axis

through each of the holes by
clicking the Create button under
Axis Datum. This datum axis can
be saved and exported to other
downstream applications, like
CAD and CAM software.
Extrude Boundary
Step 34 - Now you will add a depth to
these holes by extruding the
boundaries.
a) Click Boundaries > Extrude
Boundary.
b) Select the Depth radio button.
c) Click the edge of one of the

holes. In the Value field, enter
20.0mm.
d) Place a checkmark in the

Close Bottom checkbox to
cap the extruded boundary. A
preview of the extrusion is
shown in white.
e) Click Execute.
Step 35 - Repeat the previous step for

each of the other two holes. Your
model, when complete, should
resemble the image to the right.
Click OK to exit the command.

Project Boundary to Plane
Step 36 - Finally, you will trim and
close the bottom edge. But first,
you must extend the edge a little
to create some extra material for
trimming. Magnify in on the
jagged bottom edge shown at
right.
Step 37 - Click Boundaries > Project Boundary to Plane. First, pick the
open boundary edge at the bottom of the model. It will turn white when
selected.
Step 38 - Select the Define Plane to

activate the Align Plane
dropdown menu, select Best Fit
and a transparent plane is fit
through the selected edge. To
extend the model, though, you
need to move the plane down and
away from the model. Use the
Position setting to move the
plane just off the model, as
shown.
Step 39 - Click the Execute button

and the bottom edge is projected
onto the plane, as shown. Click
OK to exit the command.

Define Datum Plane
Step 40 - To define where to trim the model, you can create a datum plane
parallel to one of the standard coordinate system planes (XY, YZ, XZ).
Click Tools > Datums > Create Datums or click the Create Datums
icon.
Step 41 - Under Plane Method, choose the Offset icon. In the Plane
dropdown menu, select World CSYS - XZ Plane, since this is the plane
parallel to the bottom of the model, as shown by the Axes Indicator in the
lower right corner of the graphics window.
Step 42 - Click Apply and an orange

transparent datum plane is
created through the bottom of the
model.
Click OK to exit the datum

creation command.
Step 43 - In the Model Manager panel, you will notice a Datums folder has
been created under the polygon object.
Section by Plane
Step 44 - To trim and close the model.
a) Click Polygons > Section by
Plane or click the Section by
Plane icon.
b) From the Align Plane

dropdown menu, select Object
Datum Plane.
c) Select the datum plane that

was just created, called Plane
1. This will be aligned with the
datum plane.
d) Click the Intersect Plane

button to cut the model at this
location.
e) Click Delete Selection button
to remove the highlighted
portion.
Step 45 - Finally, click the Close

Intersection button to cap the
model at this location. A flat plane
of polygons is created to close the
open end.
Click OK to exit the command,

and then use CTRL+C to clear all
selections.
Step 46 - At this point, you should

have a watertight polygonal
model. To verify this, click
Analysis > Compute Volume. If
you get a value of zero, then
there is a hole somewhere in the
model. Otherwise, you have
successfully repaired this model
and it is ready to be saved as a
closed volume STL or perhaps
even surfaced using the tools
found in the Shape Phase.
END OF ACTIVITY

9. Shape Phase Fundamentals
9.1. Overview
A Shape object can be an open or a closed NURBS surface object. The quadrilateral
patches are arranged in a layout appropriate to represent the shape. A multiple resolution
grid structure is laid on each patch, and a NURBS surface is fit to each patch. Automatic UV
parameterization with global connectivity and G1 continuity is guaranteed across adjacent
patches. Tangent continuity is achieved across all patch boundaries and corners unless
specified otherwise by the user. The NURBS surface can be exported as an IGES 128 file,
and imported into any CAD/CAM or visualization system.
9.2. Good Patch Structure

Most important in producing a satisfactory NURBS object is obtaining a good patch
structure. The ideal structure is:
• Regular: Each patch is approximately rectangular with vertices of degree four.

• Shape appropriate: There are no severe or multiple curvature changes (bumps) in
the interior of a patch.
• Efficient: The model contains close to the minimal number of patches consistent with
the first two requirements.
The automatic construction of the Shape object is aimed at achieving these goals. In
addition, manual and semi-automatic editing tools are provided to modify both the structure
and the position of the patch boundaries in order to improve the patch layout. Patch
shuffling operations can be used to locally modify the patch structure while maintaining a
valid patch layout with each modification. Moving the individual vertices can modify Patch
boundaries. Panel Shuffling can be used to create a more organized patch layout.
9.3. Detect Curvature/Detect Contour

A contour line of an object is a line that will eventually become part of the generated NURB
surface structure. Contour lines are often determined by high curvature changes on an
object, and are thus used to break the object into regions of low curvature change that can
easily be represented by a set of smooth patches. The Contour Lines will be closed loops if
possible.
Operation – Detect Curvature:

• Granularity: Represents the number of triangles that will be used to represent the
model. The higher the granularity, the more possible contour lines there will be to
choose from. The goal of selecting the granularity is to be sure to have lines
representing the critical feature/style lines of the model.
• Contour Level: Used to select lines out of the available lines to be contour lines. This
level ranges between 0 and 1 and determines the amount of curvature required at a
line in order for the line to be identified as a contour line. So, a higher level will
require higher curvature, and thus choose fewer contour lines.
Operation – Detect Contours:

• Curvature Sensitivity: Specifies the number of regions that will be found based on
the curvature of the model. A higher value will increase the number of regions
computed.
• Minimum Area: Specifies the smallest allowable region to be defined.
• Minimum Length: Specifics the minimum length of a contour line otherwise it will be
contracted during the Extract process.
9.4. Construct Patches

A critical step in creating a NURBS surface is the decomposition of the polygonal model into
quadrangular patches. Each patch is bounded by 4 polylines called patch boundaries that
are traced out on the polygonal surface. These patches will function as a framework on
which to construct the NURBS surfaces.
Operation:
• Target Patch Count: The target number of patches to be created. All of the
important features of the model should be marked by the patch boundaries. If an
important feature is not well defined by the boundaries, try increasing the target
patch count value.
9.5. Construct Grids

In order to compute the NURBS surface, an ordered set of points is required which
represents the object. The grid creation process places a grid within each of the defined
boundary patches. The intersection points of this grid lie precisely on the polygonal object
surface, and can be used to calculate the splines of the NURBS surface. The denser the
grid, the greater the amount of detail captured from the polygonal surface and represented
in the final NURBS surface.
The Construct Grids command performs an automated parameterization of the triangular
surface to a dense, quadrangular patchwork. Once this grid has been calculated, the
Construct NURBS command can compute the final NURBS surface. Grid relaxation is
provided to smooth the grid and allow deviation from the polygonal surface
Operation
• Grid Resolution: Specifies the number of gridlines to use for each patch. For
example, a resolution of 10 will create a 10-by-10 mesh in each patch.
• Relax Grids on Surface, In Space, and With Tolerance: The Relax Grids With
Tolerance command is similar to the Relax Grids in Space command, but it limits the
amount of deviation from the polygonal surface by the specified value.
9.6. Construct NURBS

Studio handles the final NURBS computation automatically. Once completed, the NURBS
surface can be saved as an IGES-128 file, and imported into most CAD/CAM applications.
The NURBS construction will make all patch boundaries and corners continuous except for
those currently marked as sharp lines.
Operation:

• Specify Sharp Lines: Allows you to select patch boundaries that should be retained
as sharp edges in the NURBS computations. Most mechanical shapes require
specification of sharp lines.
• Control Points: Lower resolutions produce smoother surfaces and higher resolutions
produce more detailed surfaces.
• Tension: Increasing the tension value will smooth small fluctuations present in the
polygonal surface. Decreasing the tension value will capture more polygonal surface
detail at the expense of smoothness. The default number will be adequate for most
NURBS constructions.
9.7. Tolerance and Verification

The accuracy of the resultant NURBS surface can be determined by performing an analysis
of the surface dimensions compared to the original point set. The general statistics of this
analysis are provided in text format, and the model is color-mapped to provide a visual
representation.
Operation:
• Tolerance Commands
• NURBS Display Resolution
9.8. Workflow
The Four Major Steps to produce a NURBS Surface are:
• Detect Contours/Curvature
• Construct Quadrilateral Patches
• Construct Grids
• Construct NURBS surfaces

Activity – Fitting a surface using Detect Curvature
Objective
Learn how to fit a NURBS surface on a polygonal object and perform some basic editing to
reorganize the patch layout.
Files
TR-S10-006.wrp
Open Data
Step 2 - Change to the Front View. Use CTRL+D to fit the view to screen
Detect Curvature
Step 3 - Before creating patch boundaries, it is recommended that you first
define entities called Contour Lines, which can be specified manually or
detected automatically by the software based on the model’s curvature.
Contour Lines are used to guide the construction of surface patches and
allow for easy editing and organization of the patch layout.
a) Click Contours > Detect Curvature or click the Detect Curvature
icon. This command will automatically highlight Contour Lines on the
model based on surface curvature.
b) Place a checkmark in the Auto Estimate checkbox. This will allow the
application to estimate how complex the curvature is on this model.
c) Leave the Curvature Level set to the default of 0.3 and place a
checkmark in the Simplify Contour Lines checkbox.
d) Click Apply. The orange line that appears among the black lines
represents the line of highest curvature on the model. This orange
contour line is used to guide the software during the next step, which
is the automatic construction of rectangular surface patches.

Step 4 - Click OK to exit the
command.
You will now manually select

some of the black lines to turn
them into additional contour lines,
which will also help organize the
patch layout when you get to the
Construct Patches command.
Promote or Constrain Contour Lines

Step 5 - Click Contours > Promote/Constrain or click the
Promote/Constrain icon. Start by left-clicking the black entities
shown in Figure 38 to promote them to orange contour lines. Your model
should resemble Figure 39 when complete. If you accidentally promote a
line you did not want, press the CTRL key and click on the line to
demote it.
Contour Lines are most effective when they form closed loops or start
and end at the edge of the polygon model. They help organize the patch
layout and result in a higher quality surface. A set of Contour Lines that
do not adequately define the features of the object or create closed loops
and are therefore not very useful
Figure 38 Figure 39
Step 6 - Click OK. You should now have a model divided into five panels, or
regions bordered by contour lines.

Construct Patches
Step 7 - Click Patches > Construct Patches or click the Construct
Patches icon. Select the Auto Estimate radio button. This allows the
software to determine approximately how many surface patches are
needed to cover the surface of the polygon model.
Step 8 - Click Apply. This command

will automatically place four-sided
surface patches on the polygonal
surface. Or you can tell the
application to place any number
of patches on the surface, from 1
to 10,000 with Specify Patch
Count.
Step 9 - Click OK to exit the command. Notice the well-ordered nature of the
patch layout. This is the benefit of using contour lines to define panels
before using Construct Patches. At this point, you could complete the
NURBS surfacing in two more easy steps. However, you will use this
model to practice some basic editing of the patch layout first.
Shuffle Panels
Step 10 - Click Patches > Shuffle > Panels or click the Shuffle Panels
icon. Since your contour lines form closed regions, you can easily
reshuffle them to create a more organized patch layout.
Step 11 - Select Grid under Type. Click anywhere on the large panel as
shown in Figure 40. When highlighted in white, click the four corners
shown. Small red circles will appear after clicking each corner.
It is best to magnify in and click just inside the panel when selecting
the corners. This helps guarantee you have selected the right one.

Figure 40
Step 12 - After all four corners are defined, the model will appear as shown in
Figure 40. The numbers in red and green indicate the number of patches
along each edge of the panel. When the numbers are green that means
the number on the opposing side is the same, or balanced. When the
numbers are red, they are different, or unbalanced. In order to shuffle
this panel, opposing numbers must match. When both pairs of numbers
match, the panel is balanced and can be automatically reorganized as an
array, or grid, of patches.
a) Change the Action to Add/Del 2 Paths. Select near the edge shown
in Figure 41 to increase the number paths along the selected edge and
use CTRL+Select near the edge to decrease the number of paths
along the selected edge. You need to increase or decrease the number
of paths on each edge in order to balance the panel. You should have
4 paths on the short sides and 12 on the long sides of this panel.
If you select the wrong path or corner, press CTRL+Z to undo the
last pick.

Figure 41
Step 13 - After adding or removing the paths, both number pairs are balanced
and colored green. This means it is ready to be reshuffled. Click
Execute. The panel is reorganized in an orderly, grid-like fashion, as
shown in Figure 42.
The Auto Distribute checkbox will distribute the vertices evenly along
each side when you click Execute.
Figure 42
Step 14 - Click Next to shuffle another panel. Click the long, skinny panel
shown in Figure 43 and repeat the process of defining corners, adding
paths and distributing vertices to achieve the layout shown (2x2, 12x12).
This time however, change the Type to Strip, since the Strip type is
better suited for narrow, curving panels. Click Execute when the panel is
balanced. It should appear as shown in Figure 43.

Figure 43
Step 15 - When satisfied with the layout, click Next to accept the changes
and move to the next panel.
Step 16 - Continue making changes to

the three smaller panels shown
below until you have the patch
layout shown.
Step 17 - Click OK when finished.
Edit Contour Lines

Step 18 - To straighten out a contour line that may be crooked, you can use
tools like Fit Contour Line, which allow selective editing of contour lines.
Click Contours > Fit Contours.
Step 19 - Select one of the contour lines, such as the one in the Figure 44.
When highlighted, change the number of Control Points to 2. Press
Enter on your keyboard and a preview of the new fitting will be shown.
Click Execute to straighten the line. Results should appear as shown in
Figure 45.

Figure 44 Figure 45
Step 20 - Click OK to exit the command.
Edit Patch Vertices

Step 21 - You can also move individual vertices around manually. Click
Patches > Edit Patches or click the Edit Patches icon.
Step 22 - Use the default setting,

Move Vertices, and begin
experimenting with moving some
of the control point vertices
around by left-clicking one of the
green points and dragging it to a
new position. Notice that points
always project onto the polygon
surface. It is impossible to pull
them off.
Step 23 - Continue moving a few points around to get a feel for how easy it is
to move individual vertices. This is one of the most useful editing tools in
Shape Phase.
Step 24 - Click OK.
Zip/Unzip Patches
Step 25 - It is easy to make changes to a well-ordered patch layout. You can,
for example, quickly add or remove rows of patches in order to achieve
our desired surface quality.
a) Click Patches > Zip Patch Layers or click the Zip Patch Layers
icon.
b) Click on the line indicated in Figure 46. A row of patches will become
highlighted in white.
c) Click Execute and that row of patches is removed, or “zipped”.
Figure 46
Figure 47
Step 26 - Switch to the Unzip option. Click on the line indicated in Figure 49.
That row of patches will become highlighted in white. Click Execute. The
selected row of patches is subdivided, or “unzipped”.
Figure 48 Figure 49
Step 27 - Select OK to exit the command. This technique can be very useful if
you require higher accuracy on a particular portion of the model.
Relax Contour Lines and Patches

Step 28 - Click Contours > Relax All Contours or click the Relax All
Contours icon. This will help straighten out the Contour Lines.
Step 29 - Click Patches > Relax Patches > Linear or click the Relax
Linear icon. This will help evenly space the patches.
Step 30 - Click Grids > Construct Grids or click the Construct Grids icon.
Set the Resolution to 20 and click OK. This operation places a U-V grid
network inside each patch. The control points for our NURBS surface will
follow these grids.
The range for number of grids is 8-100. The higher the number, the
more accurate the surface will be. Conversely, a lower number will tend
to yield a smoother surface. A grid count between 20 and 50 is usually
optimal. This value will not affect the file size of the final IGES file
Step 31 - Fit NURBS surface over object.

a) Click NURBS > Fit Surfaces or click the Fit Surfaces icon.
b) Select the Constant radio button.
c) Set the Control Points value to 12.
d) Set Surface Tension value to 0.25.
e) Click OK. This operation automatically fits a C1 continuous NURBS

surface onto the grid network. Your surface is complete.
Step 32 - To export an IGES or STEP surface, click File > Save As and
specify IGES or STEP as the type to save as.
END OF ACTIVITY

Activity – Detect Contour
Objective
Generate a NURBS surface over the polygon model using the Detect Contours workflow.
Files
TR-S10-008.wrp
Opening the Data

Step 1 - Open existing in process file, TR-S10-008.wrp.
a) Click File > Open or click the Open a File icon .

b) Locate the folder that contains the file and select the file.
c) Click Open.
Entering the Shape Phase

Step 2 - Change the orientation of the model using a pre-defined view named
Activity.
a) Click View > User-Defined Views > Activity.
Step 3 - Enter the Shape Phase from the Polygon Phase.

b) Click Edit > Phases > Shape Phase.

c) Click OK to create a new patch layout.
Detecting Contours by Computing Regions

Step 4 - Calculate areas of curvature by segmenting the model into regions of low
curvature.
a) Click Contours > Detect Contours or click the Detect Contours icon
b) Set the Curvature Sensitivity value to 85.0 and Separator Sensitivity to 1.0.
Curvature Sensitivity – (0.000-100.0) = Controls how the application defines the

curvature on the model. A lower value reduces the number of regions defined, while
a larger number causes the model to be segmented more.
c) Leave the Minimum Area value at the default value.
Minimum Area (units^2) = Controls the minimum area of a defined region. Any
calculated region smaller than this value is not defined.
d) Click the Compute Regions button to start the segmentation process.
The application now segments the model into regions of low curvature. Once the
regions have been defined, your model is displayed with each regions defined as a
different color. The contour bands (curvature) are displayed in red.
Editing of Contour Bands

Step 5 - Edit the contour bands created by the Compute Regions function by
painting a new contour band. This new contour band is used to help define
the patch layout.
a) Click Edit > Selection Tools > Paintbrush or click the Paintbrush icon .
Any available selection tool can be used for painting. The default tool is the
Paintbrush, which most people find to be the easiest to use.
Step 6 - Zoom into the corner of the model as seen in the images below.
a) Click View > Magnify In or click the Magnify In icon .
b) Define the magnify zone by dragging a rectangle around the corner.

Overview Corner - Zoomed
Step 7 - “Paint” a new contour band as shown in the image below. This new
contour band is used to help define the panels, which is used in the patch
layout.
a) Place your cursor in the Viewing Area and paint a new contour band as shown.
Before Selection After Selection
To increase or decrease the size of the selection tool, use the Brush Size setting. Also,
view scale influences the amount of geometry selected. The closer you are zoomed to the
model, the less geometry is selected.
Step 8 - Add one more contour band in the area shown in image. By adding this
band, it breaks the L-shape into two four-sided panels, which provides a
better panel shape for the subsequent patch layout.

Before Selection After Selection
Step 9 - Edit an existing contour band by de-selecting a part of a band. You then
create a new band in this location to better fine-tune the set of contour lines
that will be extracted later.
a) Press and hold the CTRL key and click the band as shown. This removes the
currently highlighted contour band.
Before De-Selection After De-Selection
A piece of the contour band remains, this is called an island. Instead of de-selecting this
geometry, you use the Remove Island function to remove this partial contour band.
Step 10 - To help in the de-selection process, a set of icons has been provided to
help quickly remove small regions or islands of the contour bands. These
functions are described below.
Remove Islands de-selects islands of selected polygons that are floating

within a region.

Before After
Remove Small Regions consolidates small regions (multi-color area) by

selecting them and joining them with the contour band (red highlighted
geometry).
Before After
View Selected Only displays in the Viewing Area the user selected regions;
all other regions are removed from the Viewing Area.
Before After
View All restores the display in the Viewing Area to show all regions on the
model.

Before After
a) Click the Remove Island icon to remove contour band island that is remaining.
Step 11 - Create a new contour band that will better define the contour line that
is required.
a) Define contour band as shown.
Before new Contour After new Contour
Step 12 - Repeat the steps in the areas shown below.
Before new contour After new contour

Creating the Contour Lines
Step 13 - Now extract contour lines from the contour bands.
a) Define Minimum Length value to 3.50mm.
This value controls the minimum length of the extracted contour lines. If a contour
line is smaller than this value, the line is “contracted” or merged into a neighboring
contour line.
b) Place a checkmark in the Detect Sharp Contours checkbox. This activates the
Sensitivity value field.
This checkbox controls whether the application generates both orange and yellow
contour lines or if the application generates only orange contour lines, which are not
extendable.
Yellow = Extendable, which are used to represent filleted regions (areas of

curvature) on the model. These lines are used by the Subdivide/Extend Contours
command.
Orange = Unextendable, which are used to represent joints between lower curvature
regions.
c) Since this part has many blended areas, set the Sensitivity value to 0.0. A value of
0.0 should result in all the contour lines being yellow. Once you Extract the contour
lines, try changing this value to see how it impacts the contour lines.
The Sensitivity (0.00-100.0) setting controls the amount of yellow contour lines
compared to the number of orange contour lines. A lower value increases the
number of yellow contour lines generated.
d) Click the Extract button. The contour lines are generated and are displayed in the
Viewing Area.
Step 14 - The Contract and Remove button now become active. Review the
contour lines and contract small segments as required or remove all contour
lines and continue editing the contour bands.
The Contract button allows you to contract or merge a contour line with a
neighbor.
The Remove button removes all contour lines generated and allows you to
go back and edit the contour bands that define the regions on the model.
a) To contract a contour line, find a small contour line segment (see image). In this
example, it would be best to contract the small segment so that you create one
intersection point for the four contour lines. This helps when shuffling your panels.

Example of Contour Line to be Contracted
b) Click the Contract button; your cursor changes from a hand to a plus sign.
c) Pick the contour line to contract.
Before Contract After Contract
d) Look for other areas that might benefit from being contracted.
e) Click OK, once all areas have been contracted, to accept the contour lines and exit
the dialog.
Editing the Contour Lines

Step 15 - Use the Edit Contours command to create/edit/modify the contour
lines generated in the Detect Contours command.
a) Click Contours > Edit Contours or click the Edit Contours icon .
The contour lines are displayed with the corner vertices shown in green.

Contour lines with Vertices displayed
To increase the size of the vertices, so they are easy to see, click Tools
> Options > Graphics > Primitive Settings > Patch Boundary >
Vertex Size and set this value to 4 or 5 before entering the command.
b) Click Subdivide
c) Click Accept – now you are ready to edit the contours.
d) Click the Draw icon under Operation (this should be the default).
This set of functions allows you to create, delete, or contract contour
lines. You are not going to use these functions at this time, but they are
described so you can give them a try later.
i) Draw [D]
(1) To add a new contour line.
(2) Delete an existing contour line.
(3) Add/Move/Delete control point.
ii) Extract [E]

(1) Draw a single contour line on the surface at user-define location.
iii) Relax [R]

(1) Applies a degree of straightening to the selected contour line.
iv) Split/Merge [S]

(1) Breaks or restores the continuity of a curve at a control point.
v) Contract [C]
(1) Eliminates a contour line and pulls its end to a user-selected point
on that contour line.
vi) Modify Separator [M]

(1) Creates a new separator band under all newly drawn valid contour
lines.
e) If you tried any of the above functions, exit the command by clicking the
Cancel button. Then re-enter the Contours > Edit Contours command.

Step 16 - Click the Draw icon under Operations
a) Use the delete and draw methods to create a better contour connection as
shown:
b) You can also use the Relax method to improve contours:
c) Switch to the Contract mode to contract the two contours on each

side. The small contours one either side of the triangular area can add
complexity to the patch layout.

d) Review the model to see which areas need to be modified. Make

adjustments as needed. Click OK to accept modifications and exit dialog.
Creating the Contour Patches

Step 17 - Modify the number of subdivision points on the contour lines.
a) Click Contours > Subdivide/Extend Contours or click the
Subdivide/Extend Contours icon .
b) To increase or decrease the number of patches to be created along a

contour line, use the Subdivision functions. Select the contour line(s)
that you wish to modify or use the Select All button if you would like to
change the subdivision length on all contour lines.
Length = 5.00mm Length = 15.00mm
c) Once the contour line(s) have been selected, increase the Length value
to increase the number of patches to be created or decrease the Length
to decrease the number of patches. If you prefer, you can change the
subdivision By Patch Count. The dialog displays the estimated number of

patches to be generated.
Example of Patch Count on dialog
d) Select the By Length radio button.
e) Set the Length value to 15.0mm.
Step 18 - Extend the contour lines to generate patches in the contoured areas.
a) Extend the contour lines by selecting the Extension radio button.
b) Click the Extend button. This extends all yellow contour lines to create
contour patches.
Before Extension With Contour Patches
c) Use the Factor value to increase the width of the contour patch. For this
activity, use the default value of 1.0.
If you wish to change the width of one or more contour lines, then
select the contour lines and modify the Factor value. Only the selected
contour lines changes. If you wish to change just one side, then select the
side of the contour patches that you would like to modify. Use the
CTRL+Select to de-select the highlighted object or click the Clear All
button.

Factor = 1 Factor = 2
(Default) (Single Contour Line)
If you wish to change only one side of the Contour Patch, then
select the side of the extension that you would like to modify.
Use the CTRL+Select to de-select the highlighted object or click

the Clear All button.
Factor = 1 Factor = 2
(Default) (Extension Edge Selected)
d) Click OK to accept subdivisions and extensions and exit the dialog.
Edit Intersection
Step 19 - Edit extension patches in area of intersections.
a) Click Patches > Edit Patches
b) Adjust patches as needed to remove intersection
c) Click OK when done.

Creating Patches within the Panels
Step 20 - Create patches within the empty panels.
a) Click Patches > Construct Patches or click the Construct Patches
icon .
i) Auto Estimate - Let application calculate number of patches based on
the panel shape.
ii) Use Current Subdivision - Function is only available if you previously

entered the Subdivide/Extend Contours command and used OK to
exit the dialog. The application uses the subdivisions on defined on the
contour lines to construct the patch layout.
iii) Specify Patch Count - Provides control over the number of patches to
be used in order to construct a patch layout.
b) Select the Use Current Subdivision radio button.
c) Click Apply.
The application fills the remaining empty panels with patches.
d) Click OK to accept and exit dialog.
Before Construct Patches After Construct Patches
Editing the Patch Layout

Step 21 - Use the Shuffle Panels command to organize the patch layout.
a) Click Patches > Shuffle > Panels or click the Shuffle Panels icon .
b) Select the Define radio button under Action.
c) Select Grid radio button under Type.

d) Select a panel in the Viewing Area.
Selected Panel – Highlighted in White
Step 22 - Now define the four corners of the panel. Little green circles on the
selected panel boundary indicate the current corner locations.
Defined Corner Locations (Red Circles)
a) Select the vertices that you want to represent the corners. As the corners
are picked, the circles move around the boundary of the panel and change
to red. The red indicates that the circles are pinned or locked.
Your cursor has a number next to it. As the corners are locked, this
number changes. When you see “5”, you have defined all corners.

b) When all corners have been defined, notice the boxed numbers located on
each leg of the panel boundary. This number represents the number of
patches along that leg.
Path Indicator Number shown in Red Label
Step 23 - The objective is to get the two numbers opposing each other to be
equal. When the numbers are equal, the label changes from red to green.
a) Select the Add/Del 2 Paths radio button to increase or decrease the

number of paths.
b) Pick a vertex on the boundary on which you would like to insert two
paths.
To decrease the number by two paths, press and hold the CTRL key
while selecting the vertex.
If a panel boundary has an even number of paths and the opposite

panel boundary has an odd number of paths, you can split the two paths
by giving one path to each boundary. You must select near the corner
circles and bisect the angle of the two boundary legs. If picked correctly,

one path is added/deleted from each boundary leg.
Before Pick After Pick
Step 24 - Update the patch layout using the new path number.
a) Click the Execute button, when all path numbers are green. The panel
layout updates using the new path count.
b) Click Next to accept changes and select new panel to shuffle.
c) Continue until all panels are shuffled and you are satisfied with the
results.
d) Click OK to accept changes and exit the dialog.
Example of Model after Shuffle Panel

Editing the Patch Vertices
Step 25 - Use the Edit Patches command to modify the current patch vertices to
better suit the topology of the model.
a) Click Patches > Edit Patches or click the Edit Patches icon .
b) Select a vertex (green point – a point on the patch corner) and drag it to
the new location. If you wish to move an inner vertex (gold point – a
point on a patch edge), place a checkmark in the Display Edit Vertices
checkbox. This displays all gold inner vertices that can be moved.
c) Click OK to accept.
Defining the Amount of Surface Detail

Step 26 - Apply a grid layout to the patch layout. This grid layout is placed inside
each patch.
a) Click Grids > Construct Grids or click the Construct Grids icon .
b) Define Resolution value as 15 (Range: 8-100).
The Resolution value controls the number (NxN) of grids to be applied to

each patch. The higher the number, the more details are available for the
surface-fitting operation. This results in a more precise surface.
The Repair Intersections checkbox performs the Analysis > Check

Geometry command and tries to fix any intersections cause by the
underlying patch layout or polygon model.
c) Click Apply.

Grid Layout Close-up of Grid Layout
d) Click OK to accept and exit the dialog.
Constructing the NURBS Surfaces

Step 27 - Construct NURBS Surfaces.
a) Click NURBS > Fit Surfaces or click the Fit Surfaces icon .
There are two surface fitting methods available.

i) Adaptive fitting uses a MxN layout of control points per patch. Adaptive
fitting can result in a smaller file size when exported, since it uses a
minimum number of control points when possible.
ii) Constant fitting uses a NxN layout of control points per patch.
Constant fitting uses the same number of control points on each patch
no matter the topology of the model. (This is the method used in
Geomagic Studio 7.)
Constant Adaptive

Control Points = 9 Max. Control Points = 9
Notice the pattern of the control points. “Adaptive” adjusted the number of control
points within each patch. This adjustment is controlled by the tolerance you are
defining. Constant, on the other hand, uses the same number of control points in
each and every patch.
b) Select the Adaptive radio button under Fitting Method.
c) Define the Maximum Control Points value as 9.
The maximum number of control points is 2 less the total number of

grids when using the Constant method. In the Adaptive method, the
under-laying grids do not control this value.
d) Define the Tolerance value as 0.001mm.
The Tolerance value impacts the number of control points used. If the
Maximum Control Points value is set to low, then the tolerance value my
not be achieved.
Tolerance = 0.001mm Tolerance = 1.00mm
Notice the pattern of the control points. The tolerance value of 0.001 creates
more control points up to the Maximum Control Points value in order to maintain
the tolerance value. A tolerance value of 1.00mm allows for more freedom, so
less control points are required.
e) Click Apply to fit the surface.

Surfaced Model
f) Click OK to accept the surface and exit the dialog.
Exporting the NURBS Surfaces

Once you have applied a NURBS surface to the model, you can export this surface data to
your CAD or CAM system. There are various formats supported including IGES, STEP, and
VDA.
For a complete list of available formats, look at the Save as type located on the Save As
dialog.
Step 28 - Export the surface data to an IGES file.
a) Place cursor over shape object in Model Manager.
b) Press and hold right-mouse button.

A pop-up menu is displayed.
c) Select Save. (Save As dialog appears.)
d) Navigate to a folder that you have write permission.
e) Enter a new file name, cad-data

f) Select file type to save as, IGES File (*.igs)
g) Click Save.
END OF ACTIVITY

10. Shape Phase Advanced
When the patch structure is first produced it may fail to be regular (not rectangular in shape
or containing high-degree vertices) in some locations. Relaxation techniques exist to correct
this type of issue by applying a process that adjusts the size and shape of the patches to
obtain more shape regularity while maintaining the patch layout. After the patches are
constructed and relaxed they should furnish a reasonably good structure, but there may be
local regions where character lines do not lie exactly on features or boundaries are irregular,
etc. Manual editing operations are available to correct these particular issues.
Objectives
Use the Contour Line and Boundary Relation Tools. Modify the patch structure to a more
regular state using the Edit Patches tool.
10.1. Panel Shuffling

Geomagic Studio provides an elegant and simple process to automatically convert
polygonal models to NURBS surfaces. This process can be performed rapidly and removes
the barriers generally created by traditional surfacing tools. However, Geomagic Studio also
provides a robust set of editing tools to organize and manage the resulting automatic patch
layout. Panel Shuffling gives experienced users additional control over the resultant NURBS
surface.
Objectives
Organize the resultant automatic patch layout into a more organized layout.
Operation
Use the Panel Shuffling options: Grid, Strip, Circular, Elliptical, and Collar.

Activity – Advanced Surface Editing
Objective
Learn how to specify sharp lines so that exported surfaces will be able to have fillets and
rounds applied to them in CAD/CAM systems.
File(s)
TR-S10-009.wrp
Open Data
Fit Surface
Step 2 - In a previous activity, some of the edges of the model were
sharpened to counteract the rounding effect that scanning has. Now you
must remember to specify those edges Sharp Lines so that when you
export the surface to CAD or CAM packages, they will be recognized as
sharp edges. The edges you sharpened are visible here as magenta lines,
called Constrained Lines.
Set the Resolution to 20 and click OK to build the grid network.
Step 4 - Next, you will fit the surfaces on the grid to see the effect of not
specifying the sharp lines.
Step 5 - Click NURBS > Fit Surfaces or click the Fit Surfaces icon. Use the
default values and click Apply.

Step 6 - Zoom in on the edges that had been sharpened in Polygon Phase.
Notice that despite the perfectly sharp polygon mesh, the corners still get
rounded. This is because you did not yet tell the software to “break
tangency”. By default, all connected surface patches in Geomagic Studio
will be watertight (no gaps between patches) and tangent (smooth
transition from patch-to-patch) across the patch boundaries. To force the
software to not be tangent across patch boundaries, and therefore sharp,
you must specify which lines should only be watertight, not tangent.
Step 7 - Click Cancel to exit the Fit Surfaces command and remove the
surfaces. If you had hit OK by accident, simply go to NURBS > Remove
Surfaces to go back to grids.
Define Sharp Lines

Step 8 - Click Grids > Specify Sharp Contours or click the Specify Sharp
Contours icon. This command allows you to pick contour lines to be
sharp.
Step 9 - While still in the command, go to the Primitives Panel and remove
the checkmarks from the Triangles, Patches, and Contour checkboxes.
This will leave only the Constrained Contours checkbox checked. In the
Viewing Area, only the Constrained Contours displayed.

Step 10 - Using the Lasso or
Rectangle selection tool, select
all of the constrained lines. The
selected lines will turn purple.
If in the model, you only have

constrained contours in the areas
that will be sharp, then use the
Constrained button on the
Specify Sharp Contours dialog.
Step 11 - Go back to the Dialog panel and click OK to exit the command.
Step 12 - Click NURBS > Fit Surfaces. Click Apply and review the
generated surface.
Notice the difference in the surface. A nice sharp edge now appears in the
surface. If you export this as IGES or STEP and load into a CAD/CAM
system, you will see that you can place a fillet or round on this edge very
easily.
Step 13 - Click OK to accept the surface and exit the dialog.
END OF ACTIVITY

Activity - Surface trimming with Features
Objective
This is the same motorcycle fairing from an earlier activity, but it has already been smoothed
and cleaned up. However, there are two small attachment holes that need to be preserved
and included in the final surface. To do this, we will create two circular features that can be
used to trim the surface.
File(s)
TR-S10-010.wrp
TR-S10-011.wrp
Open File
Step 2 - Switch to the Front View.

Zoom in on the two small holes
shown below.
Define Features
Step 3 - Click Tools > Features > Create Features or click the Create
Features icon. The default Feature Type is a Hole.
Step 4 - Under Fitting Method, choose the Best Fit radio button and under
Selection, select the Triangles radio button, which is better than
Boundary for creating features on polygon data.

Step 5 - Using the Lasso or Rectangle
tools, select a region around one
of the holes. The click Apply
button. A green circle is created
representing both the position and
size of the feature.
This command best fits an arc

through the boundary contained
within the selection. It will also
orient the circle such that its
normal is perpendicular to the
surrounding surface.
Step 6 - The diameter of the hole is calculated and shown in the Parameters
section of the dialog. If desired, you can override the detected diameter
and input a different value. For this example, change the Diameter value
to 5.0 mm, and press Enter on the keyboard. Do not click Apply again,
as this will recalculate the fitting based on the selection.
Step 7 - Click Next to proceed to the next feature. Do the same thing for
other small hole, changing its diameter to 5.0 mm also.
Step 8 - When finished, click OK. Your model will have two features on it.
Notice that a folder was created in the Model Manager. Here, you can
Hide, Show, Rename, and Delete features by right-clicking on that
feature.
Now that the features have been created, you can fill in the holes, which
will make it easier to surface.
Fill Holes
Step 9 - Click Polygons > Fill Holes
or click the Fill Holes icon and fill
in both of these holes. Remember
to delete some of the area around
the hole since data was
accidentally collected on the
inside of the hole. When finished,
your model will resemble the
image.

Import Existing Patch Template
Step 10 - Next you will surface this model by applying a saved template,
which is a set of contour lines and patch boundaries that were created on
a similar model.
Step 11 - Click Edit > Phase > Shape Phase or click the Shape Phase
icon.
Step 12 - Click File > Import. Choose the file TR-S10-011.wrp. This will
bring a new object into the workspace. To use these patches to quickly
surface our polygon mesh, you must first align the two objects.
Step 13 - In the Model Manager, click on “fairing” to make it the active

object.
Align Template to Polygon Object

Step 14 - Click Tools > Alignment > Best Fit Alignment. This command
will automatically align the two objects using a best-fit algorithm. Click
Apply to begin the process.
Step 15 - When complete, click OK to exit. The template will have rotated and
translated itself to align with the polygon model.

Apply Patch Template
Step 16 - Now you must project the template onto the model. Click Patches
> Patch Template > Apply. This command allows you to project the
imported network of patch boundaries onto the polygon model, saving
significant time since these patches have already been shuffled and
edited to make a nice, well-ordered surface.
Step 17 - Click the Select button to choose this template (there is only one!)
and then click the Fix Boundaries button, which guarantees that all the
patch boundaries snap to the edges of the polygon model.
Step 18 - Click OK to complete the process. Press ALT+1 to hide the

template.
Generate NURBS Surface

Contours icon.
Patches icon.
Step 21 - Click Grids > Construct Grids. Set the Resolution to 20 and click
OK.
Step 22 - Click NURBS > Fit Surfaces. Select the Constant radio button.
Set the Control Points value to 12 and the Surface Tension value to
0.25. Click OK. You now have a NURBS surface of the fairing.
Trim Features
Step 23 - Click NURBS > To CAD Phase. When prompted, click Yes to the
dialog that pops up, warning you that this operation cannot be undone.
This is because the trimming operations you are about to use cannot be
reversed.
It is best to save your model before initiating NURBS > To CAD

Phase.
Step 24 - If still visible, hide the Template-Fairing object, or delete it from

the Model Manager, as it is no longer needed.

Step 25 - Click CAD > Trim With Features. This will allow you to trim out
the two small holes that were created as features earlier.
Step 26 - Click Select All in the dialog

box to select both features. Click
Apply to begin the trimming
operation. When complete, your
model will resemble the image,
with two circular holes trimmed
out of the surface.
Step 27 - By trimming the holes after creating the surface, you can use far
fewer surfaces than if you had to construct surfaces around each hole.
Imagine if this part contained small holes like these all the way around!
You can imagine how much time you would save in creating features and
trimming them versus having to surface around each hole!
END OF ACTIVITY

11. Fashion Phase Fundamentals
11.1. Overview
The Fashion module will allow the user to extract more CAD-like surfaces by using design-
intent as the driving creation method.
11.2. Objective
Create design-intent surfaces which are very CAD-like in appearance.
11.3. 12 Rules for creating nice Fashion models

1. Fashion is very sensitive to mesh quality, do not risk using a poor polygonal mesh.
2. Create good separator sets in order to extract untrimmed surfaces.
3. Create the best possible contour network in order to create trimmed surfaces. Time
spent here will save significant time later.
4. Care about separator sets in Edit Contours, as they influence the quality of the
extended contours.
5. Use Extend Contours – Adaptive whenever possible.
6. Always enter Edit Extensions and clean the extended curve network.
7. Use care when reclassifying, Fashion generally gives you good results.
8. On large object, work with groups of regions instead of the complete object.
9. Try to use the default settings when fitting free-form surface, if required adjust
settings as needed.
10. For Swept surfaces, the profile curves is very important, use Edit Profiles to fix.
11. For connection surfaces consider what’s more important, Accuracy or Smoothness.
12. Adjust MaxTriangleCount to improve surface mesh, if this does not work then check
STL checkbox.

Activity – Basic Fashion Surfacing
Objective
Learn how to repair a polygonal object. Replace missing data with the Fill Holes command,
smooth out rough portions of a model and reduce the number of triangles. Detect and repair
any intersecting triangles. Use Auto Surface to quickly create a surfaced object.
Files
TR-S10-014a.wrp
Open Data
Step 1 - Open part file TR-S10-014.wrp
Model has been aligned to the world and the polygon model has been repaired as
needed.

Prepare for Surfacing
Step 2 - Check for any intersecting triangles and remove any floating or
non-manifold triangles.
a) Click Polygons > Repair Intersections or click Repair
Intersections icon.
b) Click OK on dialog displayed, as there were no problem triangles

found.
c) Click Polygons > Make Manifold > Open or click Open

Manifold icon.
Step 3 - Select method of surfacing.

a) Click Edit > Phase > Surface Phase or click the Surface Phase
icon. If you do not have a Fashion license, then the Shape Phase
icon will be displayed in the toolbar.
b) Click the Fashion Phase icon under Action.
c) Click OK to create a new patch layout in the Fashion Phase.
Fashion Toolbar
Define Surface Regions

Step 4 - Layout the model regions using Detect Contour. These regions will
represent the surfaces that will be created. Try to think about the region
as an feature, instead of a four sided panel, like you would with Shape –
Detect Contours.
a) Click Contours > Detect Contours or click the Detect Contours
icon.
b) Set Curvature Sensitivity, 60.0
c) Set Separator Sensitivity, 60.0
d) Click Compute Regions.

Step 5 - Change view orientation for
editing.
a) Use the Rotate command to
change the display
orientation, as shown.
Step 6 - Edit separators to better define the regions (features) that will
represent the primary surfaces. The separators will represent the
connection surfaces.
a) Remove region that defines a flat on the cylinder. Use CTRL+Select
and paint the separator which you would like to remove.

Before After
Step 7 - Fix separator to better define planar region.

a) Use CTRL+Select to remove undesired separator.
b) Use the Paint Brush to define separator in desired location.
Before After
Step 8 - Add a separator to define the two cylindrical features.
a) Use the Paint Brush to add the separator which represents the blend
joining the two cylinders.

Before After
A quick way to paint along an area of high curvature is to press and hold the shift key
while selecting in the area of high curvature. The system will then try to select desired
data automatically.
TIP – To help select, place a check in the Curvature Map checkbox under Display.
This will change the display to better highlight areas of curvature.
Step 9 - Extract Contours based on the defined separators.

a) Click Extract

b) Review Contours, if there are problem areas then click Remove
and adjust separators as needed.
c) Click OK.
Step 10 - Edit extracted contours to improve the contour network for the
best possible results.
a) Click Contours > Edit Contours or click the Edit Contours icon.
b) Set Segment Length, 0.250 – This determines the spacing contour

control vertices. The smaller the number the more segments, the
better the fit. A smaller number will impact the performance.
c) Click Subdivide button under Convert. This will segment the

contours using the adaptive method, which controls how the
connection surfaces will be fitted.
NOTE: Uniform Subdivision is best applied when in the Shape Phase.
d) Click Accept.
e) Use Draw to adjust the contours to better follow the curvature.
f) Click Check Problems – This will highlight any contours that need
to be fixed before moving on to the next step.
g) Click OK.
Before After
Step 11 - Extend contours to define better define primaries and connector
region.
a) Click Contours > Extend > Adaptive or click the Extend Contours
– Adaptive icon.
b) Click Extend button.
c) Click OK.
Before After
Step 12 - Adjust extensions as needed to assist the system in generating

better results during surface classification step.
a) Click Contours > Edit Extensions or click the Edit Extensions icon.
b) Use available operations to improve the layout as shown.
c) Click Check Problems.
d) Click OK.
Before After

Step 13 - Define primary regions as specific surface type, planar, free-form,
extrude, etc.
a) Click Surfaces > Create Trimmed Surfaces or click the Create
Trimmed Surfaces icon.
b) Click Classify in the Operations group box.
c) Click Auto Detect under Classify.
Each color represents a surface type, which is mapped to the various

icons / surface type under Classify.
Step 14 - Reclassify individual regions as specified by design-intent. First

change top cylinder (magenta) from a rotational surface to a cylinder
(yellow).
a) Select region in Viewing Area, region is outlined in white.
b) Now select new classification for selected region, Cylinders.
c) Region changes color to match new classification.
Before After
Step 15 - Reclassify a cylindrical (yellow) region to freeform (pink).

a) Select region in Viewing Area, region is outlined in white.
b) Now select new classification for selected region, Free-form.
c) Region changes color to match new classification.
NOTE: Multiple regions can be selected using the standard selection tools along with
CTRL and SHIFT.

Before After
The Filter function under Operations can be used to activate specific

regions, which can be helpful during the reclassification.
Step 16 - Fit primary surfaces based on their surface type.

a) Click Fit Primaries in the Operations group box.
b) Click All Primaries in the Selection group box, this deselects all
primary regions.
c) Click All Primaries in the Selection group box to select all primary
regions.
d) Click Fit All button.
Before After

Step 17 - After fitting, the extrusion surface (orange) is highlighted in red
while all others are displayed in blue. This means the surface falls
outside of the acceptable tolerance range. This means we will need to
either change the surface type or edit the underlying parameters. We
will edit the parameters.
a) Select the surface that was rejected in the Viewing Area.
b) Expand the Edit Profile group box. Since this is an extrusion, there
is an associated profile curve that has been created; this is what has
failed to fit.
c) Remove the checkmark from the Profile Curve checkbox.|
d) Move Line/Arc Segmentation Sensitivity slider towards the left.
e) Click Update to recalculate the fitting of this arc.
f) Click Accept.
Before After
Step 18 - Refit using new profile.

a) Click Fit as the select region is still active. If all goes well, then the
new fitted surface will be displayed blue.

Before After
Step 19 - Fit connecting surfaces (transitions) between primaries.

a) Click Fit Connections in the Operations group box.
b) Click Fit All button.
Before After
Step 20 - Now check how well the surfaces were fit to the underlying
polygon model.
a) Click Analyze in the Operations group box.
b) Click All Primaries under Selection otherwise only the Connections

will be evaluated.
c) Expand the Deviations group box – a 3D comparison is performed

on the active surfaces.

Based on the results, we can go back and reclassify the region or
edit other fitting parameters if necessary. If you do any changes,
you will need to re-fit both the primaries and the connections.
Step 21 - Extract the surfaces so that they can be exported via IGES to our
CAD/CAM/CAE system.
a) Click Trim/Stitch in the Operations group box.
b) Select the radio button of the object to be created, Stitched Object.
c) Click Preview to see what will be created.
d) Click Create .
e) Click OK when done.
Trimmed Surface Model Untrimmed Primaries

Trimmed Primaries Profile curves
END OF ACTIVITY

12. Extra Activities
Activity – 3D Features
Objective
to create and edit 3D features.
File(s)
TR-S10-013.wrp
Open Data file

Step 1 - Open file TR-S10-013.wrp.
Step 2 - Change orientation of object to Front View.

a) Click View > Pre-defined > Front or click the Front View icon.
Create 3D Feature -Sphere

Step 3 - Create a sphere feature.
a) Click Tools > 3D Features > Create 3D Features or click the Create 3D
Features icon.
b) Click the Sphere .
c) Click Best Fit , this setting will best fit a sphere through the selected
triangles.
Step 4 - Select triangles that

represent the sphere feature.
The selected triangles

determine the overall size of the
feature. The more triangles
selected the better. This is very
important when creating Planes,
Cylinders and Cones.

Step 5 - Click Apply.
The feature is created to the

selected triangles. The
parameters of the newly created
feature are listed in the
Parameters section of the dialog.
Step 6 - Click Next to accept feature.

This will create a new sub-object
in a folder under the active object
in the Model Manager.
If you would like to add additional

triangles, just select the triangles
and click Apply. The feature will
be updated.
To edit the feature parameters

while in the create command,
change the values and press
Enter. If feature looks correct then
click Accept otherwise adjust
values or click Reset.
Create 3D Features – Cone, Cylinder, and Plane

Step 7 - Create a Cone feature.
Remember to select enough

triangles to represent the height of
the cone.

Step 8 - Create a Cylinder feature.
Step 9 - Create a Plane feature.
Step 10 - Click OK once all features

have been created. You should
have at least 4 features defined, a
sphere, a cone, a cylinder and a
plane.

Edit 3D Features
Step 11 - You will now edit a few of the features that you created.
a) Click Tools > 3D Features > Edit 3D Features.
3D Features can also be edited in the Create 3D Feature dialog.
b) Select Sphere 1 in the list box. The features current parameters are
displayed in the Parameters section.
c) Change Diameter value to 40.0mm. The feature is updated.
d) Click Accept to accept this new value.
Step 12 - Now repeat this process for

Cylinder 1.
Adjust the diameter and the

height. You will want to change
the Base so that it is below the
model and the overall Height is
greater than the model height.
Step 13 - Click OK when all edits are complete.
Create Polygon Object

Step 14 - Convert Sphere feature to a Polygon object.
a) Click Tools > 3D Features > Create Polygon Objects.
b) Select Sphere 1 from list box.
More than one feature can be converted at a time.
c) You can define Max. Edge Length and Max Deviation of the converted
features. For this activity, we will use the default values.
d) Click Apply. A preview of the feature is displayed. Click Reset if you to

change parameters or to re-specify a different feature.

Step 15 - Click OK. A new polygon object is created and listed in the Model
Manager.
Create CAD Object

Step 16 - Convert Cylinder feature to a CAD object.
a) Click Tools > 3D Features > Create CAD Objects.
b) Select Cylinder 1 from list box.
More than one feature can be converted at a time.
c) Click Apply. A preview of the feature is displayed. Click Reset to re-specify

a different feature.

Step 17 - Click OK. A new CAD object is created and listed in the Model Manager
END OF ACTIVITY

Activity – Basic Surface Creation (Detect Curvature)
Objective
Learn how to quickly create a NURBS surface on a polygonal model with minimal editing.
File(s)
TR-S10-007.wrp
Open Data
Step 2 - Before you can begin surface construction, you must move from
Polygon Phase into Shape Phase. Click Edit > Phase > Shape Phase or
click the Shape Phase icon. When prompted, click OK to enter Shape
Phase and create a new patch layout.
Step 3 - Change to the Front View. Use CTRL+D to fit the view to screen
Step 4 - A surface can be constructed on a polygon model simply by

completing four easy steps:
a) Detect Curvature
b) Construct Patches
c) Construct Grids
d) Fit Surfaces
Detect Curvature
Step 5 - Define areas of highest curvature. Click Contours > Detect
Curvature or click the Detect Curvature icon. This command will
automatically highlight contour lines on the model based on surface
curvature.
Step 6 - Place a checkmark in the Auto Estimate checkbox. This will allow
the software to estimate how complex the curvature is on this model and
display the necessary number of contour lines.
Step 7 - Leave the Curvature Level set to the default of 0.3 and place a
checkmark in the Simplify Contour Lines checkbox. Click Apply.

Step 8 - Notice that two orange lines
are created in the two vertical
creases of the seat. These
represent the areas of highest
curvature. The black lines on the
model are just reference lines
representing other areas of
contour, but we will not select any
of them. They will be erased in
the following step.
Step 9 - Click OK.
Construct Patches
Step 10 - Click Patches > Construct
Patches or click the Construct
Patches icon.
Select the Auto Estimate radio

button. This allows the software
to determine approximately how
many surface patches are needed
to cover the surface of the
polygon object.
Click Apply.
Step 11 - Select the Specify Patch

Count radio button to define the
number of patches. Enter a value
of 100 in the Target Patch
Count field.
Click Apply. Now about 100

patches are displayed on the
model.
Click OK.

Relax Contour Lines and Patches
Contours icon. This will help straighten out the two orange contour lines.
Linear icon. This helps evenly space the patches and helps prevent
potential surface patch intersections.
Construct Grids
Set the Resolution to 30 and click OK. This operation places a U-V grid
network inside each patch. The control points for our NURBS surface will
follow these grids.
The range for number of grids is 8-100. The higher the number, the
more accurate the surface will be. Conversely, a lower number will tend
to yield a smoother surface by ignoring small imperfections in the polygon
model. A grid count between 20 and 50 is usually optimal. This value will
not affect the file size of the final IGES file

Step 15 - Click NURBS > Fit Surfaces or click the Fit Surfaces icon. Select
Constant radio button..
Step 16 - Set the Control Points value to 20 and the Tension value to
0.10. Click OK.
Step 17 - In the resulting surface, you

can see many of the small
indentions and natural flaws of
the leather. This is because you
chose a high number of grids and
control points, as well as a low-
tension value. You can generate a
smoother, but less detailed,
model by decreasing the number
of grids and control points, and by
using the default tension value of
0.25. It is the user’s discretion as
to how much surface detail is
needed.
Step 18 - At this point, you can export this surface to your downstream
application, but first you will do a tolerance check to see how closely the
surface was created to the scan data.
Analysis Resulting NURBS Surface

Step 19 - Click Analysis > 3D Compare. Enter a value of 1.0 mm in the
Max. Positive field and press Enter on the keyboard. This will
automatically update the Max. Negative field to read -1.0 mm. Now
enter 0.25 mm in the Min. Positive field and press Enter.
Step 20 - Click Apply to begin the

deviation calculation. When
complete, the model will appear
with the vast majority of the
surface well within 0.25 mm of
the scan data.
Step 21 - Click OK.
END OF ACTIVITY

Activity - Advanced Surfacing, Using Boundaries
Objective
Learn an alternative way to create a NURBS surface. Use boundaries as Contour Lines,
experiment with the Convert to Patches command.
File(s)
TR-S10-012.wrp
Open Data
Step 2 - Boundaries, displayed in red, can be converted to Contour Lines

when moving from Polygon Phase to Shape Phase in Geomagic
Studio. This can be a tremendous advantage because it allows you to
create Contour Lines using tools like planes and splines. In this activity,
several boundaries already exist on the polygon model. You will create
some more boundaries using two different commands, Create
Boundary and Section By Plane.
Step 3 - Click View > Predefined Views > Top or click the Top View
icon.
Define Boundaries
Step 4 - Click Boundaries > Create > From Spline. While in Define
mode, begin creating a path by clicking about 8-10 times around the
top of the vase, as shown below. To create a closed loop, make sure
you start and end on the same point!

Step 5 - Once you have closed the
loop, click Apply to mark the
edge. Your model should
resemble the image to the right.
Click OK to dismiss the dialog.
Step 6 - Click View > Predefined Views > Isometric or click the
Isometric View icon.
Step 7 - You will now use planes to create more marked edges. Click
Polygons > Section By Plane or click the Section by Plane icon.
Step 8 - From the Align Plane drop-

down menu, choose System
Plane, then XZ-Plane. Adjust
the Position value to move the
plane approximately to the
location shown in the image.
To quickly adjust the Position

value, place your cursor in the
input field. Press and hold the left
mouse button. Now move the
mouse up and down on the
screen to adjust the value.
Step 9 - Click the Intersect Plane button. You will see a red marked edge
placed at the location where the plane intersects the polygon model.
Now, adjust the Position value again until the plane is in the
approximate position shown below, near the bottom of the vase, or type
124.0 mm in the Position input field. Click Intersect Plane.

Step 10 - Now, from the Align Plane
drop-down menu, switch to XY-
Plane.
The plane will automatically be

positioned near the center of the
bounding box.
Click Intersect Plane.
Step 11 - Finally, from the Align Plane drop-down menu, change to YZ-
Plane and click Intersect Plane.
Step 12 - Click OK to exit the

command.
Press CTRL+C to clear all

selections.
Your Viewing Area should

resemble the image.

Step 13 - Click Edit > Phase > Shape Phase or click the Shape Phase
icon.
Step 14 - Click Contours > Detect

Curvature or click the Detect
Curvature icon. Set Target
value to 250 under Granularity
and set Curvature Level to 1.0.
Click OK.
By setting the Curvature Level

to 1.0, only the boundaries will
be promoted to Contour Lines.
Step 15 - You now have Contour Lines on your object everywhere there was
a red boundary. Now, when you construct patches, they will be built
within these Contour Lines.
Step 16 - Click Patches >

Construct Patches or click the
Construct Patches icon.
Select the Specify Patch Count

radio button.
Set the Target Patch Count

value as 50.
Click OK.

Step 17 - It is sometimes beneficial
to increase or decrease the
amount of patches on a certain
area of a model based on its
complexity.
By using Contour Lines to create

an ordered layout such as this,
you can quickly alter the patch
layout using commands such as
Zip Patch Layers and Shuffle
Panels.
A good practice would be to try

organizing these patches further
using Patches > Shuffle >
Panels to achieve a nice, clean
layout.
Step 18 - If desired, complete the surfacing of this model by using Grids >
Construct Grids and NURBS > Fit Surfaces.
END OF ACTIVITY

Activity – Patch Templates
Objective
Learn to create, edit and apply templates to identical or similar objects. This functionality
greatly reduces the amount of time required to surface a polygonal model.
File(s)
Templates\saw-handle-nurbs.wrp
Templates\saw-handle-template.wrp
Templates\saw-handle-polygons.wrp
Open Data
Step 1 - Open saw-handle-nurbs.wrp.
a) Click File > Open or click the Open a file icon.
b) Choose saw-handle-nurbs.wrp from the Open Files dialog. If required,

navigate to the folder where the file resides.
c) Click Open. The file is loaded into Geomagic Studio and

displayed in the Viewing Area
Step 1 - View existing patch structure on surfaced model.

a) Select the Primitives Manager tab.
b) Place a checkmark in the Spline Boundaries checkbox to view

the patch structure. Notice how well ordered the layout is.
This existing patch structure took some time to create. You

will reuse this same structure on a similarly shaped model.
Step 2 - Remove the checkmark from the Spline Boundaries

checkbox.

Create and Save Patch Template
Step 3 - Create a patch template from the existing patch structure.
a) Click Patches > Patch Template > Convert To.
b) Change Name to My Template.
c) Click OK.
A new object called My Template is created in the Model Manager
Panel. To see the new object, click the Model Manager Panel tab.
Step 4 - Save Template to a WRP file.

a) Place mouse cursor over the My Template object in the Model
Manager Panel.
b) Click the right-mouse button and a pop-up menu will be displayed

allowing you to Save, Hide, Delete or Rename the selected object.
c) Click Save and save the template to a folder that you have write
access.
Saving the object by right-clicking on the object in the Model

Manager Panel will save only the template, whereas going to File
> Save will save all objects, including the NURBS model.
Open New Object and Import Template

Step 5 - Open saw-handle-polygons.wrp. This is a polygon model of
another saw handle, similar in overall shape.
Step 6 - Import template into

active part file.
a) Click File > Import and
bring in the template file
you just created.
You will now have two

objects in the Viewing
Area.

Orient Template to Polygon Object
Step 7 - Roughly align template to
polygon object. (Errv9.0)
a) Click Tools > Move >
Exact Position.
b) Set the Y Axis Rotation

value to –20.0 and click
the Rotate button. The
template will rotate 20
degrees about the Y-axis to
better align with the
polygon model.
You can also use the

Move Model command
along with the mouse keys
to reposition the template.
Remember to change back
to Move Camera.
Step 8 - Edit templates shape to better follow the new polygon shape by
pushing and pulling the patch structure.
a) Click Patches > Patch Template > Edit.
b) Click and drag the yellow vertices to move and resize the
template. Changing the Range value changes the influence the
modification has on the entire model: a value close to 1.0 allows
the user to stretch almost the entire model with a single click,
whereas a value near zero only affects a small area.
Drag the corners and edges of the template for best results.
c) Set the Range value to 0.30 and change the shape of the
template so that it is close to the shape of the polygon object.
Adjust the value higher or lower, as needed.
The template doesn’t need to be perfectly aligned. Simply

approximating the shape of the polygonal model and aligning the
two is sufficient.

Figure 50 - Template after manual alignment
Step 9 - Using the Model Manager Panel, make the polygon model the
active object.
a) Click on saw-handle-polygons object.
The Viewing Area now displays the active object.
Apply Template
Step 10 - Enter the Shape Phase to apply template to active object.
a) Click Edit > Phase > Shape Phase or click the Shape Phase
icon.
Step 11 - Apply template to active object.

a) Click Patches > Patch Template > Apply.
b) Click the Select button.

If there is more than one template available, then select the
correct template from the dropdown menu.
c) Click the Fix Boundaries button.

This will cause the projected points that are near the boundary
to snap to these boundaries.
The template is projected onto the polygon object. (Figure 51)
d) Click OK to accept projection.

Figure 51 - Template Projected on Polygon object
Step 12 - Hide Patch Template and relax new patches.

a) Place mouse cursor over template object in the Model Manager
Panel.
b) Click the right-mouse button and select Hide from the pop-up
menu.
The template is no longer displayed in the Viewing Area.
c) Click Patches > Relax Patches > Linear or click the Relax
Patches icon.
The patch boundaries now flow along the new object.

Figure 52 - Final Patch Layout
Step 13 - Complete the NURBS creation process.
END OF ACTIVITY

13. Getting Support
13.1. Overview
This section provides information about all the resources that are available to help support
you while using Geomagic products.
13.2. Geomagic Technical Support

USA and Canada
+1 (919) 474-3036
+1 (800) 251-5551
Europe and the Middle East

+ 36 1 464-4347
Asia
+86 21 6432-0776
Technical Support by Email

support@geomagic.com
Technical Support Web, FTP and Downloads Sites

http://support.geomagic.com
ftp://ftp.geomagic.com/incoming/
http://www.geomagic.com/en/support/downloads/
When contacting Technical Support, please include your Entitlement Number with all
communications.
13.3. Geomagic Professional Services

For more details on Geomagic training sessions, please contact training@geomagic.com or
please visit http://training.geomagic.com.
For more details on the available services from Geomagic, Inc., please contact the
Professional Services group at servicesinfo@geomagic.com.

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the magic of making it simple™

Foundation Training Guide

© 1996-2008 Geomagic Inc. All rights reserved

Geomagic, Inc., PO Box 12219, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 USA

1.2. Guide Objective

1.4. Guide Length

1.5. System Information

1.6. Convention Used in Guide

Copyright © 2008 Geomagic Inc. 1 Geomagic Studio 10

Figure 1 – GeomagicStudio “Phases”

Copyright © 2008 Geomagic Inc. 3 Geomagic Studio 10

Polygon Phase Features (Limited)

Wrap Phase Features

Polygon Phase Features

Geomagic Studio 10 4 Copyright © 2008 Geomagic, Inc.

Copyright © 2008 Geomagic Inc. 5 Geomagic Studio 10

Figure 2 - Goals for each Phase

Geomagic Studio 10 6 Copyright © 2008 Geomagic, Inc.

Polygon Phase Wrap Phase

Fashion Phase Shape Phase

Export IGES, STEP, Export IGES, STEP,

Figure 3 – Basic Studio Workflow

Copyright © 2008 Geomagic Inc. 7 Geomagic Studio 10

Fill Holes (Optional)

Figure 4 – Point Phase - Ordered Points - Single Scan

Geomagic Studio 10 8 Copyright © 2008 Geomagic, Inc.

Select Disconnected (Delete)

Select Outliers (Delete)

Wrap Phase Polygon Phase

Figure 5 – Point Phase - Unordered Points - Multiple Scans

Copyright © 2008 Geomagic Inc. 9 Geomagic Studio 10

Polygon Phase Wrap Phase

Open Manifold Remove Webs

Export IGES, STEP, VDA

Figure 6 - Polygon Phase

Geomagic Studio 10 10 Copyright © 2008 Geomagic, Inc.

Fashion Phase Shape Phase

Auto Surface Detect Contours

Edit Extensions Construct Patches

Construct Grids Specify Sharp Contours

3D Compare Fit Surfaces

Export IGES, STEP,

Figure 7 - Shape Phase - Detect Contour

Copyright © 2008 Geomagic Inc. 11 Geomagic Studio 10

Shape Phase Fashion Phase

Edit Contours Extract Untrimmed Surfaces

Create Trimmed Surfaces Create Object

Export IGES, STEP, VDA

Figure 8 - Fashion Phase\

Geomagic Studio 10 12 Copyright © 2008 Geomagic, Inc.

Available Plug-ins from Geomagic Support Website

Copyright © 2008 Geomagic Inc. 13 Geomagic Studio 10

4.2. Starting Geomagic Studio

Step 1 - From the Start Menu

Step 2 - From the Desktop icon

b) Double-click the Geomagic Studio icon located on the desktop.

Copyright © 2008 Geomagic Inc. 15 Geomagic Studio 10

Figure 9 - Geomagic Studio 10

Geomagic Studio 10 16 Copyright © 2008 Geomagic, Inc.

Texture Manager – controls the superimposition of pre-defined images on the

Display Manager – controls properties of the Viewing Area.

Copyright © 2008 Geomagic Inc. 17 Geomagic Studio 10

CTRL+MB1 Deselect Object