• While assemblies apparently look simple, they pose intersection problems
• The dilemma is that two points in a modelled assembly may occupy the same point in space, a physical impossibility.
• In some cases this may be simply ignored, but when doing interference checks, or joining models, the two assembled parts may become one part, then change the results when doing FEM, kinematic, and vibration analysis.
• Some methods to deal with this are,
- Explicitly store, and manipulate parts of an assembly separately
- To use complex graphics boundaries called s-sets (still research)