Dynamic View Unification Glue

Unification is the process where two touching or connected forms of like materials (parts) are virtually stitched together to present one monolithic representation. In OpenBuildings Station Designer, a Dynamic View Unification algorithm is available called Unification Glue. This algorithm provides superlative dynamic view unification performance (4 times greater) and enables greater tolerance between touching and connected geometry. Unification Glue is also a multi-thread utility that can support 32 bit and 64 bit processing.

Unification Glue Settings and Variables

By default, Unification Glue is enabled and controlled by the configuration variable BB_UNIFICATION_METHOD (default value GLUE). In the event you would like to return unification to its legacy state, simply redefine the configuration variable to equal MERGE. If the unification method is changed, the existing unification cache may need to be cleared in order for the unification to be reprocessed. This can be done by compressing the Building Display Accelerators (Backstage - File > Tools > Compress Options > Building Display Accelerators), and by refreshing the dynamic view with a key-in command ( MDL COMMAND DVREFRESH ).

The Unification Glue tolerance can be controlled to manage the gap or overlap of unification between touching or connected forms. The tolerance is controlled by the configuration variable BB_UNIFICATION_TOLERANCE_MM. The tolerance is defined in millimeters and the default is set to 7mm.

Unification Glue can also support multithreading and multiprocessing. It takes advantage of multi-core processors (when available), launching new threads to each core. The interaction and performance of the Unification Glue process is determined by the configuration variable BB_UNIFICATION_MT. By default, this variable is set to 2. Available configuration variable settings include:

BB_UNIFICATION_MT = 0: All unification is performed internally by OpenBuildings Station Designer.
BB_UNIFICATION_MT = 1: Large unifications are distributed to separate processes (tfunifiers.exe), while standard unifications are handled by OpenBuildings Station Designer.
BB_UNIFICATION_MT = 2: All unifications are distributed to separate processes (tfunifiers.exe). You should have 8 GB of RAM or more, in order for this to be efficient.

Note: Unification Glue is applied to Dynamic Views. It does not unify crossing or embedded geometry. Two forms must fall within the unification tolerance in order for the overlap or gap between them to be unified.

Unification of Elements within Cells

The configuration variable TF_UNIFY_CELL_CHILDREN is provided to unify elements using the same parts (or with a common unfier) when those elements are sub-components of a single cell. If the cell constituent elements use the same part definition, or a common unifier part, they unify as single elements when the variable is applied.

Set TF_UNIFY_CELL_CHILDREN=1 to unify elements within BXC, CEL and PAZ cell libraries.