Create surfaces
that round off the edges and corners between existing surfaces.
To create fillets along
edges only
- Choose Surfaces > Round .
- Select an edge shared by two surfaces
which meet at an angle.
The
common edge is highlighted in green with two blue squares indicating the
end points.
A radius
manipulator with a radius value appears on each edge.
- Click on the manipulator handles to move
it or change the radius value (See the section Using the Radius manipulator for
more information). You can also type a new radius value through
the keyboard.
- Click on the edge to add extra radius
manipulators at those locations and adjust the radii.
This will set the fillet
radius at those points. You can specify as many radii along an edge
as you want.
NoteHold
and click on an edge or
radius to remove it.
- Repeat steps 2 to 4 for any number of
shared edges on your model.
If two edges are tangent continuous, they are
treated as a single edge and a single fillet is built.
- Press the Build button.
Fillet surfaces are built
along each shared edge. All new surfaces are grouped under the same
DAG node.
- You can still modify the radius manipulators
and press Build again to rebuild the
surfaces.
- If you need to select extra edges or
deselect some edges at this point, press the Revert button.
The fillets are removed
and surfaces are untrimmed. You can then select/deselect edges (by
holding the key) then press Build again.
Notes on variable radius
fillets
- You can add as many radius manipulators
as you want to set the radius of the fillet at several point along
the edge.
- Even if you do not place radius manipulators
at each end of an edge, the fillet will extend from one end of the
edge to the other. The fillet radius at each end of the edge will
be the same as that of the outer radius manipulators.
- If two or more edges are tangent continuous,
they are treated as a single edge. Creating a smooth variable radius
fillet across the surfaces then requires only two radius manipulators
(rather than one for each edge). However, the fillet will be made
up of a separate surface for each edge.
To create round corners
- Choose Surfaces > Round .
- Select three or four edges (each shared
by two surfaces) that meet at a corner.
The
shared edges are highlighted in green with blue squares indicating
the end points.
A radius
manipulator with a radius value appears on each edge.
A corner shape manipulator
appears at the corner.
- Click on a radius manipulator handles
to move it or change the radius value (See the section Using the Radius manipulator for
more information). You can also type a new radius value through
the keyboard.
- Click on an edge to add extra radius
manipulators at those locations and adjust the radii.
This will set the fillet
radius at those points. You can specify as many radii along an edge
as you want.
NoteHold
and click on an edge or
radius to remove it.
- Click on the corner shape manipulator
to toggle between the different corner types (see Using the Corner shape manipulator).
- Repeat steps 2 to 5 for any number of
corners on your model.
If
two edges touch, they will be treated as a single edge and a single
fillet will be built.
- Press the Build button.
Fillet surfaces are built
along each shared edge, and corner surfaces are built at the corners
between fillets. All new surfaces are grouped under the same DAG node.
- You can still modify the radius manipulators
and press Build again to rebuild the
surfaces.
- If you need to select extra edges or
deselect some edges at this point, press the Revert button.
The fillets and corner
surfaces are removed, and surfaces are untrimmed. You can then select/deselect
edges, then press Build again.
To create mitered corners
To
successfully create a mitered surface, one surface is common to
both edges; the other two surfaces must intersect.
- Choose Surfaces > Round .
- Select two edges that meet at a corner.
The shared edges are
highlighted in green with blue squares indicating the end points.
Radius manipulators and
a corner shape manipulator appear.
- Adjust the radii on the two edges as
desired.
- Click on the corner shape manipulator
to toggle between Sharp and Blended corner treatment.
- Press the Build button.
Four surfaces are built:
two fillets and two surfaces at the corner.
NoteIf one of the two
edges has a radius of 0.0, no corner surfaces are built, only a
single fillet.
- You can still modify the radius manipulators
and press Build again to rebuild the
surfaces.
- If you need to select extra edges or
deselect some edges, press the Revert button.
The fillets and corner
surfaces are removed, and surfaces are untrimmed. You can then select/deselect
edges, then press Build again.
Using the Radius manipulator
The radius manipulator
appears when you click on an edge. It has two handles, as shown
above.
- Click and drag the small triangle to
move the manipulator along the edge.
- Click and drag the arc to change the
radius value (or use the keyboard to enter an exact value).
Holding the key and clicking on a radius
manipulator removes it.
Using the Corner shape
manipulator
This manipulator can
have one of six possible shapes:
Clicking on it will toggle
it between all the possible choices for the corner geometry. The
shapes available depend on the radii of the fillets incident on
the corner.
This manipulator only
appears when creating corners.
For more information
on the different corner types, see Options in Surfaces > Round .
What if...?
The round operation fails?