Surfaces > Draft Surfaces > Draft/Flange
 
 
 

Creates ruled surfaces (surfaces that are flat in some direction at every point) by pulling a surface from a curve or surface curve in a given direction, or by pulling a surface curve at an angle to the surface normal.

About the tool

The Draft/Flange tool has two distinct uses and effects based on the Mode setting:

Draft/Flange Surface Options

Construction Type

Set the type of surface created by the tool: Draft or Flange. See the overview above for descriptions of the different modes.

Angle

The initial angle of the surface from the pull direction/normal. You can change this value using the draft angle/surface depth manipulator when you use the tool.

Surface Depth

The initial depth of the surface from the original curves. You can change this value using the draft angle/surface distance manipulator when you use the tool.

Double Sided

Turn this option on to build draft surfaces on both sides of a curve simultaneously.

Single Surface

This option only appears if Double Sided is on. Turn it on to build only one surface, extending on both sides of the curve.

Explicit Control

Turn this option on if you want to specify the exact degree and number of spans of the Draft or Flange surface.

Degree

The Degree and Spans options only appear if Explicit Control is turned on.

Degree of the draft or flange surface in the U direction. (The surface is always of degree 1 in the V direction.)

Spans

Number of spans of the draft or flange surface in the U direction. (The surface always has a single span in the V direction.)

Pull Direction

This option appears only when Construction Type is Draft.

User Defined – You will explicitly set the initial pull direction vector.

Automatic – The Draft tool will automatically figure out the best initial pull direction each time you use the tool.

The following Vector Options appear only when Pull Direction is User Defined.

Vector options

These options appear only when Construction Type is Draft.

X,Y, Z

Select one of these to specify a pull direction along that axis.

View

Select this option to specify a pull direction normal to the current view. The vector is not drawn in the view windows.

If the current view is changed, click Refresh View Vector to update the vector.

Picked

Selecting this option lets you specify the name of an existing vector in the Picked Vector field, or pick the vector in the view. This vector defines the pull direction.

Manip

This option is selected automatically when you update the pull direction by manually modifying the manipulator in the view.

Refresh View Vector

This button only appears if View is selected. Click it to update the vector if the view has been modified.

Retain Vector

Click this button to create a vector construction object in the view windows. Unless you do this, the vector direction you specified is used by the tool, but you will not see and be able to re-use the vector.

Control options

Create History

Save the Draft history for later editing. If you turn on Create History, you can edit the original curves and the draft/flange surface will automatically update.