Creating a Light Surface

You can create a simple light surface, to make the design quicker, or an offset surface.

This task shows you how to:

See Also
About Light Surface

Create a Simple Light Surface

You can create a simple light surface (no offset) to reduce the storage space and make design quicker.

  1. From the Molded Part section in the action bar, click Light Surface .
  2. Select the surface to process.

  3. Optional: Modify the Target deviation value. This is the maximum deviation allowed between the original and the light surfaces.

    Target deviation is set to 2 mm. This is also its minimum value.

  4. Click Apply.
    The Light Surface is computed.

    • The dialog box is updated with Statistics.
    • If the maximum deviation actually computed is higher than the one requested, the number of points concerned is displayed (Number of points out of tolerance) and the check box Show points out of tolerance becomes available.
  5. Select Show points out of tolerance.


  6. Once you are satisfied with the result, click OK.
    The original surface is sent to the NoShow. A LightSurface.x feature is created and stored with the offset and deviation values.

  7. Complete the design, then replace the light surface with the original one.

Create a Fuzzy Offset

You can enter an offset value to change the light surface into a fuzzy offset.

  1. From the Molded Part section in the action bar, click Light Surface .
  2. Select the surface to process.
  3. Optional: Modify the Target deviation value. This is the maximum deviation allowed between the original and the light surfaces.

    Target deviation is set to 2 mm. This is also its minimum value.

  4. Enter an Offset value.

    The offset value must be greater than the maximum deviation.



  5. Optional: Reverse the direction.
  6. Click Apply.
    The fuzzy offset is computed. The original surface is sent to the NoShow. A LightSurface.x feature is created and stored with the offset and deviation values.