Merge Panels

Purpose:

To merge a number of panels into one panel.

Prerequisites:

The panels to merge must exist.

Instructions:

Pick the panels to merge from the picture. The merging between panels can take place provided that they share a common limit and that the limits surrounding the shared limit have equal definitions. Also the panels must be defined in the same plane and have compatible symmetry codes.

In the dialog, give the name of the new panel and the name of the block.

Options:

If the checkbox Only check if panels can be merged is marked any problem merging the given panels is reported to the user. If successful, the scheme file of the temporary resulting panel is shown. No panel or block name need to be given as no real panel is created.

Result:

The boundaries of the panels are merged, but also plates with edges along the coinciding limits. Also seams, stiffeners and flanges with ends meeting at the coinciding limits are combined if possible.

For panel components to be combined they must share the main characteristics such as type, dimension, direction, inclination

If more than two panels are given all panels are compared with each other recursively, including the new panels resulting from the merge of two previous ones, until no more merges are possible. Only one panel should remain, otherwise the function fails with an error message.

In a multi-view project with Design Panels and Production Panels, only Design Panels can be merged by this function. If the merged Design Panels have connected Production Panels, a Block Seam is created replacing the merged limit.

Production Panels can not be merged as the Block Seam referred by from the coinciding limits may connect to limits on other Production Panels as well. However by using the function Planar > Panel > Remove Seam, all Production Panels connecting to this Block Seam can be merged two and two.