To Thicken Faces or Offset Surfaces

The Thicken/Offset command lets you add or remove thickness to faces of a part or a quilt, create an offset surface from a part face or surface, or create a new solid.

Thicken a Face or Offset a Surface

1. Click 3D Model tab Modify panel Thicken/Offset .
2. Specify the select mode:
   • Face. (Default) Lets you select only individual faces with each click.
   • Quilt. Lets you select a group of connected faces with one click.
3. Select the Output type: Solid (to add thickness) or Surface (to offset).
   Note: Offset surfaces do not add or remove mass.
4. If there is more than one solid body in the file, click Solids and select the participating body.
5. Using the selector, click in the graphics window to choose the participating faces or surfaces.
   Tip: To select multiple tangent continuous faces to thicken, select Automatic Face Chain on the More tab of the dialog box. All selected faces thicken with the same Boolean operation and direction.
6. Under Distance, specify the thickness or distance of the offset.

   If needed, click the arrow to use the Measure command, Show dimensions, or select a recently used value.

   Note: You can create copies of surfaces with a zero distance offset, but not surfaces with vertical sides. This can be useful when you want to make a copy of an entire surface body or a set of individual faces from any solid model or surface.
7. If you’re outputting a solid, specify how the thicken feature intersects with the solid part:
   • Join . Adds the volume created by the Thicken feature to the solid part.
   • Cut . Removes the volume created by the Thicken feature from the solid part.
   • Intersect . Creates a new feature from the shared volume of the Thicken feature and the solid part. Material not included in the shared volume is deleted.
   • New Solid . Creates a new solid body. This is the default selection if the thicken operation is the first solid feature in a part file. Select to create a new body in a part file with existing solid bodies. Each body is an independent collection of features separate from other bodies. A body can share features with other bodies.
8. Set the Direction of the thickness.
9. On the More tab of the Thicken/Offset dialog box, specify whether and how to calculate approximations:
   • Allow Approximation. When no precise solution exists, allows a deviation from the specified thickness while computing the offset feature. A precise solution creates an offset surface where each point on the original surface has a corresponding point on the offset surface. The distance between these two points is the specified distance.
   • Mean. If approximation is allowed, deviation is divided to fall both above and below the specified distance.
   • Never Too Thin. If approximation is allowed, preserves minimum distance. The deviation must fall above the specified distance.
   • Never Too Thick. If approximation is allowed, preserves maximum distance. The deviation must fall below the specified distance.
   • Optimized. Computes approximation using a reasonable tolerance and minimal compute time.
   • Specify Tolerance. Computes approximation using the tolerance you specify. Considerable compute time may be required.
10. On the More tab, if desired, select Create Vertical Surfaces.

    Create Vertical Surfaces creates vertical or “side” faces connecting the offset faces to the original quilt. Vertical surfaces are created only at internal surface edges, not at boundary edges of surfaces.

    Note: You can’t create vertical surfaces to join an offset surface to a solid part.
11. Click OK.

Tip: To display information about the depth and the method in the browser, enable the setting Application Option/Parts tab, Display extended information after feature node name in browser.

Apply Automatic Blending to a Thickened Face

Automatic blending is a re-blending technology that automatically moves adjacent tangential faces and also creates new blends if required. It is available when solid faces are selected for a Thicken operation and when the thickness extends in the positive or negative direction, but not when you’re thickening equally in both directions.

No automatic blending:

Automatic blending applied:

1. Click 3D Model tab Surface panel Thicken/Offset .
2. On the Thicken/Offset tab of the Thicken/Offset dialog box, select Solid for Output and extend the thickness in one direction.
3. Select Automatic Blending.
   Note: When automatic blending is enabled, the Join, Cut, Intersect, and New Solid operations are not available and you Face is the only select mode you can use.
4. Set the Distance of the thickness, specify options as desired in the More tab, and then, in the graphics window, select the face or faces to thicken.
5. Click OK.