Creating Associative Fill Surfaces

You can create a fill surface between three or more curves or surfaces.

Note:
  • Curves may have only one intersection.
  • The support elements must be contiguous in only one point.
  • The current gap value between supporting edges is displayed in the work area. The maximum allowed value is 0.1mm.
  • indicates that the element has one support.
  • indicates that the element has more than one support. Right-click the tag to display the available supports and select the one you want to use.

Before you begin: Open 3D shape containing surfaces with gaps to be filled.
See Also
Creating Filling Surfaces
  1. From the Creation section of the action bar, click FreeStyle Fill .
  2. Select the edges of neighboring surfaces in consecutive order.
    The fill surface is created immediately after terminating the selection.

  3. Optional: In the work area, click a continuity label to switch to the next continuity or right-click and select another continuity in the context menu.

    Note: The Tangent continuity is available only when filling a closed contour.

  4. Select one of the following fill types:
    OptionDescription
    Analytic Creates multiple fill surfaces.
    • For four elements, one surface is created with the selected elements as borders.
    • For three, five or more elements, two cases can occur:
      • Several four-side surfaces with a barycenter point are created; there are as many surfaces as there are continuity changes.

      • One or n surfaces are created if a continuous continuity between the elements is respected.



    According curves or edges selection, Point continuity or Point and Tangent continuities are available.
    Power Creates one filling surface.

    With this Power fill type, all continuities (Point, Tangent, and Curvature) are available. Free is also available. Using Curvature conditions between boundary edges and fill surface may impact strongly the shape of the surface. In addition, forcing Point condition with boundary curves may induce a wavy or defective fill surface. Right-click the continuity label and select No continuity in the context menu to reduce this effect. In this case, the boundary curve is projected and used as trim curve.
    Auto Computes the best orders and number of surfaces depending on the inputs.
  5. Optional: In the App Options panel, clear Continuity and click Furtive Display to display the control points and visualize the number of orders.


  6. Click More>> to display further options.
  7. In the Limits area, define constraints to be taken into account when computing the fill surface.
    OptionDescription
    Max Order U/V Number of control points by patch. The minimum order is s 2/2 for all fill types.
    U/V Patches Number of U and V patches
    Tolerance The maximum tolerance is 0.1. The smaller the tolerance, the more precise the created fill surface is.

    Notes:
    • Options in the Limits area are not available in the case of an Analytic type with three, five, or more input elements. They are also not available in case of an Auto type with any number of input elements.
    • The Tolerances and Order are defined in Me > Preferences > App Preferences > 3D Modeling > Styling > FreeStyle Shape Design, General tab, Geometry section.
    • If you create a fill, you decrease the order value in the Preferences, the created fill keeps the former value. Nevertheless, if you edit the fill and decrease its order value directly in the Fill dialog box, the new order value is set as the maximum value, until it reaches the value defined in the Preferences. However, if you create a new fill, the maximum order value is the one defined in the Preferences. The tolerance value is comprised between 0.001 mm and 0.1 mm. If you define a higher value, the maximum value would still be 0.1 mm.
    Important: Tangent tolerance of the result is defined internally and set to 0.5deg.

  8. Optional: For the Power type, select Roundness Factor to improve the smoothness of the result surface.

    It provides a parameter to modify the shape of the fill surface. It controls the stiffness of the surface.

    You can specify the following values: 1, 5, 15, and 20.

    • Small values allow a stronger deformation of the fill surface.
    • High values make the fill surface more rigid and resistant against deformation.

  9. Optional: For the Analytic type, select Constrained to deform the resulting filling surfaces according to the selected Deformation direction.
  10. Optional: Use the handles at the barycenter point to deform the generated surfaces.

    While deforming, continuities are retained.

    • Select Normal to Surface Direction to move the handle normal to the fill surface.
    • Select Robot Direction to move the handle in one of the Robot directions.


  11. Optional: Right-click the handle to open the context menu.