Material
Each shape is assigned to a Material that will describe its material properties and its color. The materials are all shown in the navigation tree.
Component
The shapes are also associated to "components." Each shape must have a unique name within a certain component. Components are useful to quickly manipulate a larger part of the model.
Basic Shape Creation
The easiest way to create a shape is to define a "primitive." The following table shows the ribbon controls icons, their names and their location in the ribbon.
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Modeling:
Shapes |
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Modeling:
Shapes |
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Modeling:
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To create such a primitive, you will first need to activate the particular operation as shown in the table. This will lead you to the interactive shape generation mode where you may define the shape's parameters using the mouse (while in this mode, press F1 for more information).
After you have finished all necessary steps (or pressed the ESC key) a shape parameter dialog box will open showing a summary of all parameters for this shape.
Within this dialog box, you may change the parameters and finally create the shape.
After the shape has been created, it will appear in the navigation tree under it’s Material folder.
Slots and Vents
Slots are used to represent a narrow aperture in
a thin metal face. It is intended for apertures that are too narrow to
be effectively modeled as features in the geometric model. A slot
can be created by Modeling: Shapes
Faces and AperturesSlot
Vents are used to model perforated metal screens,
which are commonly used as windows or ventilation panels on metal enclosures.
For frequencies at which the width of the individual apertures is significantly
smaller than half a wavelength, these screens are only weakly penetrable
to electromagnetic fields. A vent
can be created by Modeling:
ShapesFaces and AperturesVent
Blend and Chamfer Edges
The simplest modifications of shapes are the blend and chamfer edge operations.
To chamfer or blend edges, you will first have to
pick these edges. Afterwards,
you may activate the proper tool by choosing Modeling:
ToolsBlendBlend Edges (
) or Modeling:
ToolsBlendChamfer Edges (
).
Finally, a dialog box will appear where you may define the chamfer width or the blend radius.
Transformations
Transformations
may be applied to any shapes by selecting the shapes and then choosing
Modeling:
ToolsTransform (
). With this operation, you may translate,
scale, rotate or mirror a shape. The existing shapes may either be directly
modified by the transformation or the original shapes may be kept while
new copies will be produced.
Align
Use the align
feature to position a selected model at a common interface with the current
model. You may activate the alignment by choosing
Modeling: ToolsAlign (
).
Extrude and Rotate Picked Faces
It often becomes useful to extrude
or rotate
already existing faces in the model. Therefore, you may
pick a particular face and the activate the Extrude
Face (Modeling:
ShapesExtrusionsExtrude, 
)
operation or the Modeling:
ShapesExtrusionsRotate,
) operation. The latter operation requires the definition of
a rotation axis. The axis may be selected by either picking
a straight edge from the model or entering a linear
edge numerically (Modeling:
PicksPicksPick Edge from Coordinates,
).
Boolean Operations
Boolean operations
are a very common way to produce complex shapes. With these operations,
you may Add (Modeling:
ToolsBooleanAdd, 
), Subtract (Modeling:
ToolsBooleanSubtract,
), Intersect (Modeling:
ToolsBooleanIntersect, 
) Insert (Modeling: ToolsBooleanInsert, 
) and Imprint (Modeling:
ToolsBooleanImprint) shapes into each other. Please
refer to the boolean operation overview
page for more details.
Loft Between Picked Faces
A more advanced operation to create new shapes is
lofting between
profiles. This operations requires two faces to be picked
between which the loft will be placed. Afterwards, you may activate the
loft operation by
choosing Modeling:
ShapesExtrusionsLoft (
).
Finally, a dialog box will appear where you may adjust the tangency of the lofted surface to the adjacent faces.
Shell or Thicken Sheet
One of the most advanced operations for shape generation is the shelling operation. For shelling, you must first select a shape.
If you select a solid shape, you may additionally pick faces of the shape that will be opened during the shelling operation.
Finally, you may activate the shelling
operation by choosing Modeling:
ToolsShapes ToolsShell Solid or Thicken Sheet (
).
A dialog box will open, where you must specify whether the shape is to
be shelled or thickened to the inside or to the outside.
Solid to Sheet Conversion
Convert to Sheet:
The operation Modeling: ToolsShapes ToolsSolid to Sheet ConversionConvert to Sheet converts a solid body
into a sheet body.
Revert to Solid:
The operation Modeling: ToolsShapes ToolsSolid to Sheet ConversionRevert
to Solid is the inverse
operation and converts a sheet body into solid body.
Please note: The operation is only possible if the body has a closed surface.
Simplify Sheet
Metal: Use the action Modeling: ToolsShapes ToolsSolid to Sheet ConversionSimplify
Sheet Metal to
simplify
a sheet metal body to a face.
Bend Sheet
This operation allows to bend a planar sheet on a solid. For this bending operation, you must first select the planar sheet you want to bend.
You can activate the bending
operation by choosing Modeling:
ToolsBend Shape from the main menu.
Local Coordinate Systems
Besides the ability to create the shapes along the axes of the global x/y/z coordinate system, it is also possible to define local coordinate systems or working coordinate systems (WCS).
The usage of these coordinate systems allows the generation of structure elements with an arbitrary orientation in space. Furthermore, the local coordinates allow the construction of new model elements based on the faces on already existing ones.
