Navigating through a space between two polysurfaces

Hi,

I am designing a mold which has a male and female component. I’m designing them to have a 1mm cavity between the two surfaces where the molded shape should be.

I am currently just using the wireframe and ghosted views to try and validate my design but I was wondering if there are any other methods or plugins I am not aware of that would make my validation easier. Is there a way to zoom in on the surfaces without the camera view going inside an object?

Thanks,
Chris

Hi Chris- use Zoom Target, I think, with OSnaps, and probably, if you’re zooming in really close, set the view projection to be parallel, if it is not already- (Properties window, with no selection). See also the Contour and Section commands, they might come in handy.

-Pascal

Thanks Pascal, Zoom Target will be an improvement over manually zooming in. However, it still presents the problem of giving me a view where I am still located inside the closer object which obstructs the view in some scenarios.

To give a more simple explanation of what I’m trying to achieve, imagine a hallway that zig zags, turns, and curves. I’d like to be able to “walk” through that hallway and ensure the walls are a specified distance apart. Is this possibly? Contour and Section could work to get cross-sections but only for one isolated region at a time. Perhaps there is a more dynamic tool?

-Chris

Hi Chris- open the Walkabout toolbar, that might help here as well.

-Pascal

That is extremely helpful. I tried adjusting the step increments and I think this will do what I need. Thanks Pascal!

Also check out the clipping plane. You can move this plane and the display updates dynamically.

That is awesome, thanks for the suggestion!