When a structure is created, e.g. in GrainGeo, using periodic boundary conditions, objects cut on one side of the domain reappear on the opposite side. This means that a single GAD object appears cut into several small pieces in the 3D structure. If the GAD objects are exported into other software, e.g. using ExportGeo-CAD, those periodic reappearances may not be taken into account.

Therefore, for periodic GeoDict-generated structures, Expose Periodic Objects produces non-periodic structures in which the interrupted periodic objects in the structure are added to the structure’s analytic description (GAD).

Although no difference is observable when simply visualizing the structure, the result of exposing periodic objects is the loss of periodicity and a higher number of objects in the structure. The higher number of objects after performing this process is directly observable in the number of Objects in the Project Status section.

The effect is also clearly observable when saving the structure as GAD file before and after exposing periodic objects and opening them with a text editor. See how PeriodicX, PeriodicY, and PeriodicZ are now listed as False and the number of objects has increased from 10 to 13.