Shade a surface with its draft angles

Shades the picked surfaces with a color map showing areas in and out of draft, for checking mold manufacturability.

This shading mode shows you which parts of a surface are in-draft and out-of-draft for a specified pull vector and draft angle. In-draft points are shaded blue, out-of-draft points are shaded red. You can also display a tolerance region in pink.

Shade the picked surfaces with a draft angle map

Click the button in the Diagnostic Shading panel.
Where do I find the Diagnostic Shading panel?
Click the small triangle at the bottom of the Diagnostic Shading panel to show the shading options.
In the Type pop-up menu, choose Draft Angle.
Choose whether to specify the pull angle as a rotation (from the normal “up” direction) or as a vector, then enter the X, Y, and Z values.
Note
If you want to use an existing vector or plane to specify the pull vector, pick it, then click the Update From Selection button. This automatically sets the X, Y, Z coordinates to the correct values in the panel.
Do any of the following:
- Set the draft angle.
- To show a tolerance region between in-draft and out-of-draft, set the tolerance angle.
- Adjust the transparency of the shader.
  Tip
  You can create a curve-on-surface along the parting line using Evaluate > Parting Linein the Palette.
  
  See Create curves on surface from evaluation data for more information.

What if...?

I don’t know what vector values I need?

Use the Construction > Vector tool to create a reference vector, and point it in the direction you want.
Pick the reference vector and click the Update From Selection button under the Draft Angle options in the Control Panel. (If you pick a plane instead, the direction perpendicular to the plane is used.)
The X, Y, and Z coordinates of the vector are automatically set.

I don’t know what pull direction, draft angle, in-draft, out-of-draft, mean?

Some manufacturing processes, like injection molding, need you to design molds. When a mold is used it is pulled away from the finished part along a pull direction.

Angle-to-pull is the angle between the surface tangent plane at a surface point and the pull vector. When the angle-to-pull is 0 degrees, the pull vector is parallel to the surface tangent plane at that point. When the angle-to-pull is 90 degrees, the pull vector is normal to the surface.

Most manufacturing processes require that the angle-to-pull for a molded surface be greater than some angle, for example 1 degree, or else the molded part will not separate from the mold. This angle is the draft angle.

When the angle-to-pull is less than the draft angle, the surface point is out-of-draft. When the angle-to-pull is more than the draft angle, the surface point is in-draft.