3.8.12: Element Felting 🔷

Fig. 3.8.12.1: Elements “A” & “B” of the original model are connected resulting in additional element “C”.

Sometimes one has several (potentially) structural elements neatly positioned in space but no connections between them. The “Element Felting”-component helps out in such situations by generating connections between neighboring elements (see fig. 3.8.12.1). The component's behavior can be con- trolled with these input-plugs:

"Model"	Model to be dealt with
"LimDist"	The “Element Felting”-component calculates the shortest distance between each pair of elements in the model. If this distance is less than “LimDist” meters a connection will be generated.
"SnapLen"	In case that a connection is to be generated the participating elements need to be divided and a connection element introduced. If any of the thus arising elements has a length of less than “SnapLen” meter then the element will be removed and its endpoints snap to the original end-point.
"MaxELen"	You can set here a length limit for elements that shall take part in the felting-process. All elements longer than the value of “MaxELen” meter will be ignored.
"StartInd"	Lets you limit the felting process to elements with an index larger than or equal “StartInd”.
"MaxNCon"	This sets the maximum number of new connections to be generated. If this value is reached then felting simply stops.
"Beam Id"	The beam identifier provided here will be attributed to the connections generated by the component. Cross sections, materials and eccentricities previously defined for this beam identifier apply to these. In case no identifier is given neighboring elements snap to the point in the middle of their shortest connection line.

The felting algorithm proceeds from the first element to the last, always testing against all currently existing elements. Therefore newly generated connection elements may be the source of further connections.