Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. 218 AutoCAD and Its Applications—Advanced PROFESSIONAL TIP PROFESSIONAL TIP The DELOBJ system variable plays an important role when working with meshes, solids, and surfaces. Set the DELOBJ system variable to 0 to retain the geometry used to create the mesh, solid, or surface. When the variable is set to 3 (the default value), the geometry used to create the mesh, solid, or surface is deleted when using the MESHSMOOTH, CONVTOSOLID, or CONVTOSURFACE command. Mesh Tessellation Options The Mesh Tessellation Options dialog box contains many mesh options, Figure 9-6. This dialog box is displayed by picking the dialog box launcher button at the lower-right corner of the Mesh panel in the Mesh tab of the ribbon or by using the MESHOPTIONS command. When converting to mesh objects, the resulting mesh is one of three different mesh types. The FACETERMESHTYPE system variable controls which type of mesh is created. Selecting Smooth Mesh Optimized in the Mesh type: drop-down list converts objects to the optimized mesh type (FACETERMESHTYPE = 0). This is the default and recommended setting. At this setting, the smoothness level can be set for the resulting mesh using the options in the Smooth Mesh After Tessellation area. Selecting Mostly Quads in the Mesh type: drop-down list creates faces that are mostly quadrilateral (FACETERMESHTYPE = 1). Selecting Triangle in the Mesh type: drop-down list creates faces that are mostly triangular (FACETERMESHTYPE = 2). The Mesh distance from original faces: setting is the maximum deviation of the mesh faces (FACETERDEVSURFACE). Simply put, this setting determines how closely a converted mesh shape matches the original solid or surface shape. The Maximum angle between new faces: setting is the maximum angle of a surface normal of two adjoining faces (FACETERDEVNORMAL system variable). The higher the value, the more faces created in very curved areas and the less faces created in fl at areas. Increasing the value is good for objects that have curved areas, such as fi llets, rounds, holes, or other tightly curved areas. The Maximum aspect ratio for new faces: setting is the upper limit for the ratio of height to width for new faces (FACETERGRIDRATIO system variable). By adjusting this value, long faces can be avoided, such as those that would be created from a cylindrical Select the mesh type Distance setting Angle setting Figure 9-6. The Mesh Tessellation Options dialog box.