Data Exchange > Interface > Working with Imported Geometry > Redefining Imported Features > About Collapsing Geometrically Related Features
About Collapsing Geometrically Related Features
If you retain the default selection of the All geometrically related features option in the Collapse dialog box, you can collapse all the features that contribute geometry to a specific solid geometry or quilt to create an independent geometry feature.
Even if you select a set of features that belongs to a single solid body of a part, the selection automatically expands to include additional features that are geometrically related to the set of features you selected when you select the All geometrically related features option in the Collapse dialog box. Whether the related features belong to other solid bodies of the part or whether the selected features and their related features are the contributing features of the same solid body, the selected features and their related features are included in the collapse. The collapse excludes features that are not geometrically related to the selected features.
However, when the features of a body are related to the features of other solid bodies of the part in a complex manner, the selection of the related features automatically expands in a cascading manner to include all the related features. The features selected for the collapse then include a relatively large number of related features when compared with the set of features initially selected for the collapse. The features that you explicitly selected and all the geometrically-related and contributing features automatically highlight to indicate selection. They collapse into the target feature to create the independent geometry feature when you click OK in the Collapse dialog box.
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Even selecting the Range of features option as the set of features to collapse in the Collapse dialog box creates an independent geometry feature when the range of features selected for the collapse contribute geometry to a single solid body or quilt.
After the collapse, the solid bodies that were associated with the collapsed features are preserved and are associated with the independent geometry feature. When you then redefine the independent geometry feature, you can reset the option on the Independent Geometry tab, from the Add Bodies option to the Add Geometry or the Add Surfaces option. You can select on the Independent Geometry tab to view the structural representation of the solid bodies and quilts in Import DataDoctor (IDD). A single top-level Body or Quilt node represents the bodies or quilts whose features are collapsed. The Body or the Quilt node contains the geometry of each body or quilt and is identified by the generic name of ‘Body’ or ‘Quilt’ or by their assigned names on the Model Tree. You can edit the independent geometry features in IDD just as you edit import features. However, if you delete the independent geometry features, collapsed geometry is removed while the target features persist and are not deleted.