36.3. Geometric index / Mesh reduction - Default changed (9.03 SP3)

All settings of the mesh reduction (reduction of the geometric part complexity) for the Geometric Search act on the settings of the configuration file $CADENAS_SETUP/geomsearch.cfg.

Mesh reduction is always processed, when, in the configuration file geomsearch.cfg, the respective key has been activated (value =1).

[meshReduction]
reductionEnabled=1

Furthermore stlMaxTriangleCount (the max. allowed number of triangles) from the section [limits] is relevant. If a part has more triangles than specified, then the number is reduced to that value.

[limits]
stlMaxTriangleCount=250000

If Mesh reduction is switched off and the number of triangles is higher than the value set under stlMaxTriangleCount, then a respective error message is displayed.

[Note]Note

As of V9.03 SP3 the default value for the maximum number of triangles has been changed from 100.000 to 250.000.

In which cases a difference results by this change of the default value?

For parts, whose number of triangles is between 100,000 and 250,000, a difference is resulting by the change.

  • Case 1: Mesh reduction switched off.

    At the next geo index update the fingerprints are regenerated.

  • Case 2: Mesh reduction switched on.

    A mesh reduction is not necessary anymore for the part now. That means, that the quality of the fingerprints is higher now, which has a positive effect on the topology search. The change only affects added parts or STL as search part or a complete new generation. Theoretically the following could happen: The same part is imported again and has a little bit different fingerprints than the old one, which may cause the similarity to be only 98 or 99 percent instead of 100 percent. The same applies, if a STL is used as search part.

For which processes the Mesh reduction is relevant?

  • Batchconvert.exe:

    Mesh reduction can be used with the parameter "--meshreduction".

    Also see Section 35.24, “Batchconvert.exe (9.04, 9.03) ”.

  • Geometry import in PARTadmin:

    Mesh reduction is used for the fingerprint generation.

  • As of V9.04 the Mesh reduction is processed, when a geo search is performed based on a STL and the number of triangles is too high.

  • MeshReduction.exe can directly be executed.