Defining a changing direction on the 'surface distance' function

[[To...]]

I am comparing the distance between one surface element and another using the surface distance function. The problem is it is a very rough surface so calculating the direction of the distance based on the normal of the surface results in rubbish results. There is an option to define a direction but the problem is my surfaces are wavy and it seems you can't define a continuos direction. Ideally I would like to define the direction based on a smoothed version of the surface but it seems you can only define the direction in one way, i.e. a plane element, and can't select an element like a smoothed surface. Maybe I am missing something or there is an alternative solution? Any help wold be appreciated 

 

[[Je...]]

Hello Tom,

using the direction of a gauss plane is not an option?

Or construct surface - smoothed surface (add a filter), then construct a surface points to use its normal direction.

Best regards,

Jens Heidler

[[To...]]

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Hi Jens,

Thanks for the suggestion - the issue is the direction changes over the surface so I don't think a plane or single point will work. Below is a quick sketch of what i need, black lines show the wavy surface I am trying to measure the thickness of, blue lines show the direction it needs to measure the thickness in:

 

 

What a plane or point direction results in is this:

 

I can achieve the first image if the surface is smooth using the auto calculate direction function but if the surface is very rough it just gets confused - therefore I am looking to try and define a direction based on a smoothed version of the surface but can't figure out how to do this.