About Thick Surfaces

You can add material to a surface in two opposite directions using the Thick Surface command. This topic provides you with the information you need to create a thick surface.

The following are discussed:

This page discusses:

See Also
Creating Thick Surfaces

Contextual Commands

Two contextual commands creating the object you need are available from the Object to offset box:

  • Insert Operations > Create Join: Joins surfaces or curves. For more information, see Generative Shape Design User's Guide: Performing Operations on Shape Geometry: Joining Surfaces or Curves.
  • Insert Operations > Create Extract: See Generative Shape Design User's Guide: Performing Operations on Shape Geometry: Extracting Geometry: Extracting Elements.
  • Insert Operations > Create Tessellate: Generates a tessellate.

Extracting Geometry

Sometimes, you will need to use the Extract command to be able to add thickness to a face. Extract lets you generate separate elements from initial geometry, without deleting geometry. This command is available after clicking a dialog box prompting you to deactivate the Thick Surface feature and extract the geometry. Once the operation has been done, the Extracted Geometry (ThickSurface.x) node is displayed in the tree. This category includes the elements created by the app.

Extract is available if only one face was selected to perform the thick surface operation.

Note also that if you have Generative Shape Design installed, the geometry resulting from the extract operation is associative.

Hybrid Design

When adding a surface-based feature or a surface feature modifying another surface-based feature or surface belonging to the same body, Part Design features based on that second feature then reference the new added feature. In other words, a replace operation is automatically performed. For an example, see About Split Features

Self-Intersection

The app does not manage self-intersections between faces with opposite orientations. To avoid this type of self-intersections, the thickness value must be lower by half than the minimal distance between faces belonging to the same body, with opposite orientations. If this rule is not respected, the app cannot produce a valid body.

Before using Thick Surface, ensure that the input body has enough space to be thickened.

The Thick Surface value is too big for these faces

The Thick Surface operation is not valid