About Corner Fillets

This section deals with basic concepts you should know before beginning with creating Corner Fillets.

Within the complex discipline of Class A surface modeling of automotive interior or exterior components, it is often the case that the modeling completion of components is done via the filleting together of two sets of surfaces. This is a common practice which is in most cases a simple operation in which to perform.

However, when three fillets converge at a single point of intersection, there is often a styling requirement to blend out the intersections to generate a more aesthetically pleasing result. This fillet convergence is often a more complex situation in which to create a solution as today the process is manual.

The command Corner Fillet allows the creation of Class-A quality corner fillets with a single command.

This page discusses:

See Also
Creating Corner Fillets

Ball Corner

The Ball Corner is the more traditional corner fillet required when three fillets converge.

The ball corner derives from three fillets of circular roundnesses created with the Advanced Fillet command. However, to adhere to manufacturing and legal requirements, frequently a minimum radius for the corner fillet is required.

The following images describe an example of a more manual approach to create a traditional Ball Corner scenario from three fillets having the same radius value of 10mm converging and intersecting at a single point.

The image below shows the three fillets having been trimmed to their intersection to demonstrate the point at which the Ball Corner fillet must be inserted.

One of the more traditional manual methods to generate a Ball Corner fillet is to trim back the supporting fillets to their intersection with adjacent fillets. Thus creating a hole in which to create the corner.

The final stage is to create the Ball Corner fillet using either alternative commands such as Surface Creation > Fill or Surface Creation > Patch from Curves or to start from a flat patch and by using control points and Matching create a result meeting Class A standards.

Blend Corner

Following on from the more traditional Ball corner fillet, another type of corner fillet commonly required is a Blend Corner fillet.

Like the Ball Corner, the Blend Corner is commonly derived from three converging fillets. However, unlike the Ball corner, the requirement is to blend out the shape of the fillet between the three intersecting fillets which may be of differing sizes.

The blending of the corner fillet will of course needs to fulfill the correct Class A, manufacturing and legal requirements, but is very much a design feature depicted by what aesthetically provides the best result.

Very often its construction is complex and time consuming to complete, and the techniques used in its creation vary between users.

The following images outline a number of steps commonly used in such construction techniques.

The image on the right shows the three fillets having been trimmed to their intersection to demonstrate the point at which the Blend Corner fillet must be inserted.

One of the next steps is to create the blend curves which define the main shape of the Blend Corner and limiting curves in which to trim back the supporting fillets. Thus creating a hole in which to create the Blend corner.

The final stage is to create the Blend Corner fillet using either alternative commands such as Surface Creation > Fill or Surface Creation > Patch from Curves or to start from a flat patch and by using control points and Matching create a result meeting Class A standards.

Manipulators

Manipulators are available for a blend corner fillet modification.

Point manipulators
Modify start and end position of Curve 1. The values in the text boxes Length 1 and Length 2 of the dialog box are automatically updated.
Tension manipulators
Modify the shape of Curve 1.



Continuity manipulators
To set the different continuities, continuity manipulators are available on the Blend corner fillet boundaries.