System and method for partitioning cad models of parts into simpler sub-parts for analysis of physical characteristics of the parts

Abstract

A slicing tool works with a solid modeling system to partition the geometric representation of a three-dimensional part into a series of simpler sub-parts the union of which replicates the original part in a manner that introduces a minimal number of new surfaces in each sub-part and in total. This approach uses the existing analytic surfaces that define the part geometry to partition the part and selects a partition from a quality metric based on the number of trimmed surfaces of the part being partitioned and the candidate sub-parts. This approach greatly reduces the complexity of any downstream solid modeling applications that perform combinatorial surface operations on the geometric representation of the series of sub-parts to analyze physical characteristics such as radiation, mechanical, optical, thermal, structural or biological of the original part.