Creating Tritangent Shape Fillets

You can create a shape fillet between three surfaces.

The fillet surface is obtained by rolling a sphere between the selected surfaces. It involves the removal of one of the three faces selected.

Shape Fillet

Before you begin: Create a 3D shape containing three surfaces intersecting each other.
See Also
Creating Bitangent Shape Fillets
  1. From the Refine section of the action bar, click .
    The Fillet Definition dialog box appears.
  2. In the Fillet type list, select the Tritangent Fillet type.
  3. In the Support 1 box, select a surface as the first support element.
  4. In the Support 2 box, select another surface as the second support element.
  5. In the Support to remove box, select the surface to be removed.

    The fillet will be tangent to this face.

    Up to six fillet locations may be possible. To help you decide on the location an arrow is displayed on each selected surface. You can click on the arrows to specify the desired fillet location.

  6. Click Preview to see the filleted surface:


    You can clear the Trim support 1 and Trim support 2 check boxes. In this case, the support element involved will not be trimmed and assembled to the filleted surface. By default, options are checked, thus relimiting both support elements.

    With only one support element trimmed

    With both support elements trimmed

  7. In the Extremeties list, select the desired type of extremity for the fillet:
    • Smooth: a tangency constraint is imposed at the connection between the fillet surface and the support surfaces, thus smoothing the connection.

    • Straight: no tangency constraint is imposed at the connecting point between the fillet and the initial supports, generating sometimes a sharp angle.

    • Maximum: the fillet surface is limited by the longest selected support's edge.

    • Minimum: the fillet surface is limited by the shortest selected support's edge.

  8. Click OK to create the shape fillet.
    The surface (identified as Fillet.xxx) is added to the tree.

Important: If the selected supports are partially tangent, it is advisable to create an edge fillet.