CST2013: Boolean Operations

Probably the most powerful operation to create complex shapes is the combination of simple shapes by boolean operations. These operations allow you to add two or more shapes together, to subtract one or more shapes from another, to insert shapes into others, and to intersect two or more shapes.

While modifying or creating a new shape, the shape may intersect with another shape of the modeled structure. Depending on the material types of the intersecting shapes, it may be necessary to apply a boolean operation to some of the intersecting shapes to subsequently run any solver. If one of the settings in the Modeling: ToolsBooleanIntersection Check Settings dialog box is checked, an intersection check will be performed automatically if a new shape is being created or modified . In this case, the Shape Intersection Dialog box is launched. You may initiate the Intersection check manually by Modeling: ToolsBoolean Perform Intersection Check

In the following we will consider two shapes—a brick (first shape) and a sphere (second shape) —on which we will perform boolean operations: