Absorb Members

Use the Absorb tool to reverse engineer a skeleton model using lines or 1D elements as input.

  1. From the Skeleton ribbon, click the Absorb tool.
    Figure 1.


  2. Select lines or elements.
  3. Click to define options.
    Create joint legs
    Legs are created at each joint. The legs that are generated span 30% of the member size.
    Create member sections
    Defines the number of section cut planes along the length of each line and the section will be created based on what the section cut plane intersects. This can be controlled by defining the length and width of the section cut plane.
    Realize entities
    Will create the appropriate skeleton entities.
    Auto weld section
    Will create an enclosed section by stitching flanges together.
    Auto detect thin solids
    Is a classification process of solid geometry to enhance the output of the member creation.
    Create sketch
    Will allow full ease-of-use edit capabilities in sketcher.
    Section cleanup
    Will remove overspill areas of a section to reduce the section to only what’s desired. The option will remove a large amount of manual cleanup.
    Figure 2.


    Figure 2 shows the current behavior without section cleanup. The over-capture of the section cut plane includes areas that are not desired. When the 1D mesh is created, the 1D sections include the over-capture which would need to be cleaned up manually.
    Figure 3.


    Figure 3 shows the behavior with the section cleanup capability enabled. Despite the section cut plane intersecting additional regions, those additional regions are filtered out automatically resulting in a clean output.
    Figure 4.


    In a real-world example, the difference between the two outputs is notable. The left side of Figure 4 is not using cleanup, while the right side of Figure 4 is using cleanup. The section cleanup capability will remove hours of manually cleaning up multiple sections.
    Break angle (degrees)
    Max angular deviation that is considered a straight member.
    Group prefix
    Named prefix to use for each new member.
  4. On the guide bar, click one of the following:
    • - Apply and stay in the tool
    • - Apply and close the tool
    • - Exit the tool without applying
Figure 5. . Original model containing lines only
Figure 6. . Absorbed model with joints and members created