Limiting short lines in DXF imports

Limiting short lines in DXF imports prevents issues during mesh generation and avoids any interruptions in analysis caused by excessively short lines. The minimum distance between two points is checked against a set limit, which is defined as 1/50 of the bounding box of the cross-section.

Should the distance between any two points fall below this threshold, the user is promptly notified that the points are too close to each other, and the import of the geometry from the DXF file is halted. This measure necessitates users to adjust the geometry in the DXF file to meet the specified conditions before proceeding.

This addresses the challenge where analyses could be disrupted or the application might encounter crashes due to the presence of too short edges in the cross-section definition, leaving users uncertain of the problem's origin. Clearly informing users of non-compliant geometry at the moment of import enables the quick identification and correction of the issue, facilitating a smoother analysis process.

You can read more about creating your own build-up cross-section in How to create and use a custom cross-section and about importing a general plate from a DXF in How to import a plate from DXF.

Released in IDEA StatiCa patch 23.1.2.