The enable.surface.model Properties
As you may have noticed in the above table, there are two very similar properties:
• apriori.enable.surface.models.sheetmetal
• apriori.enable.surface.models
apriori.enable.surface.models.sheetmetal was introduced in aPriori Professional Release 2018 R1, to force virtual thickening of surface models in Sheet Metal process groups. It is set to “true” by default.
apriori.enable.surface.models is an older property that has been available for several releases and which has been retained to preserve behavior in non-Sheet Metal process groups. It is set to “false” by default.
For Sheet Metal GCD extraction, apriori.enable.surface.models.sheetmetal supersedes apriori.enable.surface.models.
The following table shows the expected behavior for the various combinations of these properties:
apriori.enable. surface.models. sheetmetal= | apriori.enable. surface.models= | Behavior in Sheetmetal | Behavior in other process groups | Behavior in User Guided |
true(default) | false (default) | Part displayed. GCDs extracted. | Part displayed. GCD extraction error. | Part displayed. No GCD extraction error. |
true (default) | true | Part displayed. GCDs extracted. | Part displayed. GCD extraction error. | Part displayed. No GCD extraction error. |
false | false (default) | Part not displayed. GCD extraction error (part never opened). | Part not displayed. GCD extraction error (part never opened). | Part not displayed. GCD extraction error (part never opened). |
false | true | Part displayed. GCD extraction error. | Part displayed. GCD extraction error. | Part displayed. No GCD extraction error |
So how do these property settings translate to what you actually see on your screen? Here are two common settings and how they affect costing in different process groups.
EXAMPLE 1:
apriori.enable.surface.models=false
apriori.enable.surface.models.sheetmetal=true
Process Group = Sheet Metal
Result:
• Part is displayed
• Able to extract GCDs like a solid model (No GCD extraction errors)
Process Group = Plastic Molding
Result:
• Part is displayed on screen, but when first trying to cost, error (see below) is displayed: “This model has no solid geometry”.
• No GCDs extracted because there is no solid geometry
• GCD extraction “errors”, saying surfaces are not supported, see red dots with X in GCD panel
Process Group = User Guided
Result:
• Part is displayed on screen, when first trying to cost, NO error is displayed.
• No GCDs extracted because there is no solid geometry.
• No GCD extraction error (note all green dots for GCDs below) but that is because there ARE no GCDs.
EXAMPLE 2:
apriori.enable.surface.models=false
apriori.enable.surface.models.sheetmetal=false
Process Group: ALL
Result:
