FF_MERGE_FAILURE when extruding splines on solids

[alexfranke]

FF_MERGE_FAILURE when extruding splines on solids

Hi all,

I posted this to the normal API forum a couple weeks ago. It doesn't appear to be a problem with the API app that I wrote because once the glyphs are imported into Alibre Design, they're represented as b-splines and polylines, which are native to AD. Also, a couple other users have told me they've seen this problem when working with complex splines.

The curves and lines seem to import properly, and analyzing the sketch shows no unusual or limiting features. When the splines are on a sketch based on a plane that is the face of a solid, and the sketch is used for Extrude Cut or Extrude Boss, we see the error "FF_MERGE_FAILURE: failure in face-face intersection merging algorithm."

A tested work-around has been to offset the design plane a slight amount from the surface, and then the extrude boss/cut works fine. However this is not ideal.

Any ideas what might be the problem here?

Thanks,
Alex

 

[shubhab]

Hi Alex,

Would you mind sending me the file that has the sketch which you are trying to extrude, so I can understand what is going on?

Thanks,
Shubha,
Alibre, Inc.

 

[alexfranke]

Thanks for responding so quickly, Shubha!

The attached part contains the letter "s" extruded from two surfaces: For the first one (Plane<2>, Sketch<2>, Extrusion<3>) one face of the cube was selected, and the plane (Plane<2>) was added with 0.000 offset. The FF_MERGE_FAILURE can be seen here in Extrusion<3>.

For the second one (Plane<4>, Sketch<3>, Extrusion<5>), the plane was offset 0.001 from the face of the cube and it extruded just fine.

Thanks for your help!

Cheers,
Alex Franke

 

[shubhab]

Hi Alex,

I discussed this issue with our development team and it appears that there is a problem with extruding sketches made from text outlines. I have entered this defect in our Defect Database to be taken of in future.

Did you create this sketch using our API?

Thanks,
Shubha,
Alibre, Inc.

 

[alexfranke]

Thanks, Shubha. Yes I did use your API to create the sketch.