Delete Face

If you have a solid that you designed in FeatureCAM, you can easily delete a design feature. If you delete an extrude feature, that cuts a slot in a part, the slot is removed and the material is filled back in that region. If you have a solid model that you imported or stitched, it is difficult to remove a design feature because you do not have the design features that were used to create the part, so you must use delete faces to remove the feature and heal the model back together.

This example was an imported surface model that was stitched into a solid.

Most of the regions that you want to remove are the equivalent of 2.5D features in your solid. This includes extruded holes, pockets, or bosses. It is important that you select all surfaces that represent the feature in the solid. For example for a blind hole, the walls and bottom must be removed. If you only select the walls to be removed, the bottom would be left floating in space and cannot be healed back into the model.

To delete faces from your solid:

1. Select Construct tab > Solids panel > Manufacturing > Delete Face to display the Delete Face dialog.
2. If you want to create a new solid with the faces removed, select Create new solid. Enter a Solid name for the new solid, or leave the default name.
3. If you want to modify an existing solid, select Modify existing solid.
4. Select the faces in one of these ways:
   • Selecting the surface name and clicking the Add button.
   • Picking the surfaces in the graphics window and clicking the Add button.
   • Clicking the Pick surface button and picking the surfaces in the graphics window.
5. If you want the gaps left by the deleted surfaces to be filled in, select Heal remaining faces.
6. Click the Preview button.
7. If you get an error message, it is probably because you left out some of the surfaces that need to be removed. Add the other surfaces and try Preview again.
8. Click OK.