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Curvature Info

In one sentence: Click a point on the mesh to report the principal, mean, and Gaussian curvature values at the nearest vertex.

Overview

Workbench: Mesh
Menu: Mesh → Meshes → Analyze → Curvature Info
Command: Mesh_CurvatureInfo
Shortcut: none

Activates a pick mode — click anywhere on the mesh to report the curvature at the nearest vertex. Requires a Vertex Curvature object to already exist in the document.

Intuition

Curvature measures how sharply a surface bends. Flat faces have zero curvature; cylinders have curvature in one direction; spheres have equal curvature in all directions. Curvature Info lets you read the exact numerical curvature at any point, useful for validating that a scanned surface is truly flat or cylindrical.

When to use it

  • Validating a scan surface — confirming that a nominally flat region has near-zero curvature.
  • Reading the radius of curvature of a cylindrical scan segment (R = 1/κ).
  • Investigating isolated high-curvature points that may indicate noise or sharp defects.

When NOT to use it

  • This tool requires Vertex Curvature to be computed first — run Vertex Curvature before using Curvature Info.

Step-by-step

  1. Run Vertex Curvature first to compute curvature data.
  2. Choose Mesh → Meshes → Analyze → Curvature Info.
  3. Click any point on the mesh.
  4. The curvature values appear in the Task panel.
  5. Press Escape to exit.

Reported values

Value Description
Min curvature Principal curvature κ₁ (lower value)
Max curvature Principal curvature κ₂ (higher value)
Mean curvature (κ₁ + κ₂) / 2
Gaussian curvature κ₁ × κ₂

Reference values: - Flat face: κ₁ = κ₂ = 0 - Cylinder wall (radius R): κ₁ = 1/R, κ₂ = 0 - Sphere (radius R): κ₁ = κ₂ = 1/R

Common mistakes and pitfalls

Requires Vertex Curvature object

If no Vertex Curvature object exists in the document, Curvature Info has no data to report. Run Vertex Curvature first.

See also