User Manual

Mesh - Key Plane Edit - Model Verification/Adjustment:

The key plane optimization/verification utility may be used to identify and (optionally) optimize

key plane location in portions of the model where key planes are within a specified tolerance. 

This is extremely useful in avoiding excessive mesh sizes caused by the slight misalignment of solid boundaries.

The user begins by specifying a tolerance. Any location in the model where the distance between key planes is less than this tolerance will be identified and highlighted in the graphics windows upon hitting the "Locate Key Planes" button.   If any pairs of key planes were identified using the locate button, the "Merge Key Planes" button will become enabled.  Selecting the merge button will result in the identified pairs of key planes being merged into a single key plane (Note that no objects will be collapsed as a result of this action; this will only eliminate spaces between solid regions).  The new key plane location will be placed at the mid-point between the original key plane pair. The "Merge Undo" button allows for the key plane locations (and hence, the walls, PCBs, components, etc.) to be restored to their "original" state.  Note that this will act on all key planes regardless of how many merge operations were performed previously.

Warning: The key plane optimization procedure does not influence the size of the walls, PCBs or components as they appear on the geometry forms (it does influence the display of the object in the graphics window). Internally a flag is set indicating that the solid region has been moved for purposes of analysis. 

 The setting of this flag will result in a relative movement of the object until a "Merge Undo" action has been performed (the graphics windows will reflect the position/size of the entity as it will be during analysis). If an entity is moved via geometry form input without performing this action, the relative movement will still be performed at the new entity location. 

Note that the "Merge Undo" action will result in all key planes being reset to their default positions.