Creating Variable Radius Fillets as Local Modifiers

You can create a curved face of a variable radius that is tangent to, and that joins two surfaces using Variable Radius Fillet . A variable radius corner means that at least two different constant radii are applied to two entire edges.

The command allows you to define the two types of variation to the variable radius fillet: cubic and linear.

See Also
Using the Display Only Parents Option to Retrieve a Creation Context
  1. From the Refine section of the action bar, click Edge Fillet, Local Modifier .

    The Edge Fillet.x dialog box appears.

    Important: Two edge fillet capabilities are available in Functional Plastic Parts:
    • Edge Fillet, Local Modifier lets you add fillets on features intrinsically. Because of its robustness it can be used more often. You can also add fillets as feature modifiers.
    • Part Design Edge Fillet lets you fillet functional solids. It is recommended to use it once the 3D shape is almost complete.

  2. Select the edge you want to fillet. You can define variable radius fillets on closed edges.
  3. Click and select the Points box.
    The app detects both vertices and displays two identical radius values.

  4. Double-click the radius to define the Parameter Definition dialog box.
  5. Click in the Points box. Select the required geometry in the geometry.
  6. Double-click the plane radius and define a value.
  7. Click OK.


    You can select the Conic parameter check box options which allow you to vary the section of the fillet. For a parameter comprised between or equal to:

    • 0.5, the resulting curve is a parabola
    • 0 < parameter < 0.5, the resulting curve is an arc of an ellipse
    • 0.5 < parameter < 1, the resulting curve is a hyperbola.

    Conical fillets do not handle twist configurations. If a twist is detected, the fillet operation fails.

    Conical fillets may produce internal sharp edges due to a curvature discontinuity of the fillet supports. Healing is used to smooth these sharp edges.

    If the fillet surface curvature is lower than the support curvature, fillet surface re-limitation may fail. In such cases, the conic parameter has to be decreased.

  8. To edit this fillet, double-click EdgeFillet.x in the tree. Under Options, specify the Limiting element option.
    Important: Four additional options are available. To know how to use:
  9. Click in the Limiting element(s) box, then select the required element in the geometry.
  10. Click arrow to reverse the direction specifying the portion of material to be kept.
  11. Click OK.
    The variable radius fillet is trimmed upto the limiting element. The final part looks like this: