Create rounded edges and corners
 
 
 

Create surfaces that round off the edges and corners between existing surfaces.

To create fillets along edges only

  1. Choose Surfaces > Round.
  2. 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.

  3. 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.
  4. 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.

    Note

    Hold and click on an edge or radius to remove it.

  5. 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.

  6. Press the Build button.

    Fillet surfaces are built along each shared edge. All new surfaces are grouped under the same DAG node.

  7. You can still modify the radius manipulators and press Build again to rebuild the surfaces.
  8. 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

To create round corners

  1. Choose Surfaces > Round.
  2. 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.

  3. 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.
  4. 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.

    Note

    Hold and click on an edge or radius to remove it.

  5. Click on the corner shape manipulator to toggle between the different corner types (see Using the Corner shape manipulator).
  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. You can still modify the radius manipulators and press Build again to rebuild the surfaces.
  9. 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.

  1. Choose Surfaces > Round.
  2. 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.

  3. Adjust the radii on the two edges as desired.
  4. Click on the corner shape manipulator to toggle between Sharp and Blended corner treatment.
  5. Press the Build button.

    Four surfaces are built: two fillets and two surfaces at the corner.

    Note

    If one of the two edges has a radius of 0.0, no corner surfaces are built, only a single fillet.

  6. You can still modify the radius manipulators and press Build again to rebuild the surfaces.
  7. 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.

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?