Interference checker

[Maavhamt]

Hi,
Is there an interference checking tool to see if two or more 3D shapes overlap? Or does it have to be done visually? I have a complicated composite shape I want to put in a case and such a tool would be useful. I've looked at Help and can't find anything.

OS: Windows 8
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 32-bit
Version: 0.15.4671 (Git)
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-15
Hash: 244b3aef360841646cbfe80a1b225c8b39c8380c
Python version: 2.7.8
Qt version: 4.8.6
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17

[r-frank]

Hello.

I would:

1) clone with draft workbench the two shapes in question
2) do a boolean intersection with the two clones (part module-workbench)
3) use one of these macros from the macro page in the wiki
ObjectInfo
FCInfo (Windows)
FCInfo (Linux)
to get the volume of your intersection. If it is >0 you have interference

[but anyway you are right, commercial 3D CAD's mostly have such a tool]

Roland

[triplus]

Actually i just noticed @hamish added tool like that in his 3rd Party FreeCAD Assembly2 module. I did few basic tests with some cubes and cylinders and it worked fine. Check it out yourself on how it works for your use case if you are interested.

[bill]

Here is a macro that does collision detection.
Collision Detect

A colllision occurs when two objects try to occupy the same space; just like an auto acccident.

It is recommended that you read and understand the tolerance section! This is dependent on the size of the objects you are checking!

I used it in an automated script to check all the parts in an assembly, over their entire range of motion.

Regards,

bill

[Maavhamt]

Thanks for your help. Sorry but being new to FreeCAD I don't understand Macros, but the Boolean intersection tool did the job. I have also learned about cloning, which will be useful.