Creating Thicknesses

In this section you will also find information about:

• Ignoring Faces
• Extracting Faces
• Self-Intersection

1. Click Thickness .
   The Thickness Definition dialog box is displayed.

   In the Functional Molded Part workbench, click Thickness, Local Modifier in the Dressup & Modifiers toolbar (Transformation Modifiers sub-toolbar). The Thickness Definition dialog box appears.

2. In the work area, select the faces to thicken.
   

   The faces become brown and the application displays the thickness value in the geometry. A table displays all the selected faces and contains a column to display respective thickness values.

   
   

3. In the Thickness column, enter the required values for each selected face. Select the following options, if required:

   Option	Description
   Apply to all	Select a face and this option. The thickness specified for this face is copied in all the rows.
   Apply to selected	Press Ctrl and select a number of faces. The thickness of the first selected faces is copied in all the rows.
   Remove	Select a face to be removed and then this option.
   Replace	Select a face to be replaced by the another face and then this option.

   An asterisk (*) appears at the beginning of the row, from which the thickness value is to be copied. A positive thickness value will add material to the feature whereas a negative one will remove material. In Functional Molded Part workbench, if you extract, for example, a feature where a thickness as a local modifier is performed, this thickness will also be extracted with the feature.

4. Click OK.
   The part is thickened accordingly. This creation appears in the specification tree.

5. Double-click the thickness to edit it.

6. In the Face box, select the lateral face as shown.

7. Double-click the thickness value displayed on this face.

8. In the Thickness column of each selected face, enter a value. Select the following options, if required:

   Option	Description
   Apply to all	Select a face and this option. The thickness specified for this face is copied in all the rows.
   Apply to selected	Press Ctrl and select a number of faces. The thickness of the first selected faces is copied in all the rows.
   Remove	Select a face to be removed and then this option.
   Replace	Select a face to be replaced by the another face and then this option.

9. Select the Propagate Thickness check box to automatically propagate the thickness of the selected face to the faces tangent to it.

10. Click OK to confirm and close the dialog box.

11. Under Deviation Parameters, select the Smoothing mode among these three types:

    None: No smoothing is applied. This is the default option. The Max deviation field is disabled. Manual: Allows you to enter a maximum deviation. The default value is 0.1 mm. Automatic: Smoothing is applied automatically. The Max Deviation field is disabled.

13. Optional: Select one of the Regularization type on the offset surface:

    Local: regularizes the offset surface locally to minimize the deviation. This option improves the number of successful computations by adding local adaptations to the offset body. As a result, some new internal faces, edges or vertices may be created. However, as the distortion is local, deviation area is restrained and the deviation is lower. Global: regularizes the offset surface completely. If the local regularization fails, an informative prompt is displayed and the offset surface is globally regularized.

14. Click OK to close the Thickness Definition dialog box and to create the thickness feature.
    The length between the selected face and the resulting face is 25mm.

Ignoring Faces

In some specific cases, the application cannot offset the selected face. An error message appears informing you that the body cannot be built properly. After closing that window, another message appears proposing you to ignore the faces causing trouble. If you accept that solution, the thickness is added to the selected face and the face causing trouble is removed. 

Ignoring faces in many cases avoids a costly and difficult manual rework of the part.

In the basic example below, the face causing trouble is the variable radius fillet.

After ignoring the fillet, the thickened body looks like this:

The fillet icon is still displayed in the specification tree. If you edit the thickness, the ignored face is previewed:

The Reset ignored faces option is then available in the Thickness Definition dialog box.

By selecting this option, the ignored face is reinitialized and the Ignored face indication in the geometry is deleted. If the check box is cleared, the previous ignored face is still taken into account for the next feature definition.

Extracting Geometry

Sometimes, you will need to use the Extract command to be able to add thickness to a face. The Extract capability 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 thickness feature and extract the geometry. Once the operation has been done, the Extracted Geometry (Thickness.1) node is displayed in the tree. This category includes the elements created by the application.

The Extract capability is available if only one face was selected to perform the thickness operation.

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

Self-Intersection

The application does not manage self-intersections between faces with opposite orientations. To avoid 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 application cannot produce a valid body.

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

Face to be thickened

The thickness value is too big: the Thickness operation is not valid