Creating Fill Surfaces

You can create fill surfaces between a number of boundary segments.

Before you begin: Create a 3D shape containing curves or surfaces edges.
See Also
About the Fill Command
  1. From the Surface section of the action bar, click Fill .
  2. In the Outer Boundaries section, select curves or surface edges to form the outer closed boundary.
    A diagnosis is displayed in the work area and the fill surface is previewed within the boundary.

    Note: You can also create a fill surface without selecting the outer boundaries, if Generative Shape Morphing app is available. You can select any one of the following:
    • Inner boundaries
    • Inner boundaries and passing elements
    • Passing elements (at least three non-collinear points or a curve).
  3. Optional: In the Inner Boundaries section, select inner curves or surface edges to form the inner closed boundary.
    Note: Only curves corresponding to a single inner boundary are displayed in the list.

    A diagnosis is displayed in the work area and the fill surface is displayed within the boundary.



    The resulting surface will be a fill surface between the outer and inner closed boundaries.

  4. In the table containing the list of elements, you can:

    • Click to add a line at the end of the list.

    • Click to insert a line before the selected line.

    • Click to insert a line after the selected line.

    • Click to remove all the lines.
  5. Optional: Click Add Boundary to add a new boundary or click <cross icon> to remove the selected boundary.
    Note: If you click Add Boundary, the currently displayed curve is cleared in the list to let select another curve.
  6. Optional: For both the sections, you can select a support surface for each curve or edge. In this case, the continuity will be kept between the fill surface and selected support surfaces.
    Note: You can define a support just after the selection of the curve or by clicking the curve in the list and selecting a support. To be able to select a support, the boundary must completely lie on the support.
  7. Optional: For both the sections, you can select a continuity type for each support surface. You can modify the continuity type either from:
    • The dialog box: select the input in the list and modify the type from the Continuity column in the table.
    • The work area: click the widget to switch from one type to another or right-click it and select the type from the context menu. Widgets are useful to visualize whether and which continuity is set on a boundary.
  8. Optional: Use the list box to specify the desired continuity type between any selected support surfaces and the fill surface:
    • Point
    • Tangent
    • Curvature
    Warning: Inner and outer boundaries cannot intersect, be merged or be the same.
    Note: You can edit outer and inner boundaries by first selecting an element in the dialog box list and then clicking to do one of the following:

    • Add a new element after or before the selected one.

    • Remove the selected element.

    • Replace the selected element by another curve.

    • Replace the selected support element by another support surface.

    • Remove the selected support element.

  9. Optional: In the Passing elements box, select one or more points and curves.
    This element can either be a point or a curve through which the filling surface must pass, thus adding a constraint to its creation. However, you may need to decrease the number of constraints by removing the supports.
    Important: The passing point should lie within the area delimited by the selected curves. If not, the results may be inconsistent.
    Note: A curve can be selected as a passing element only if GSD, GSO, or HFM product license is available.
  10. Optional: Select the Planar Boundary Only check box to fill only planar boundaries, when the boundary is defined by one curve on one surface.
  11. Optional: Define the Deviation mode to specify the gap between the fill surface and the boundaries.
    • None: Default resolution value. The tolerance is deactivated.
    • Automatic: Deviation of 100 times the resolution.
    • Manual: Deviation manually defined in the box.
    Important: If the continuity type is set to either Tangency or Curvature in Me > Preferences > App Preferences > 3D Modeling > 3D Modeling Core > Generative Shape Design, General tab, Tolerant Modeling section, the deviation is set to Manual and the Maximum deviation value is taken into account as the default value.
    Important: The curves should be selected so that there should not be any gap greater than 0.1mm between them. Otherwise, an error message is issued. If the gap between two curves is greater than the maximum deviation, the gap is not filled and the resulting surface still displays a gap.
  12. Click OK to create the fill surface.


    Here are complementary examples of filled surfaces:

    Filling surface without specified supports
    Filling surface with a passing point and no specified supports
    Filling surface with specified supports (blue and yellow surfaces) and a tangency continuity
    Filling surface with a passing point, specified supports (blue and yellow surfaces) and a tangency continuity