Thicken or shell a T-Spline body

Learn how to use the Thicken tool to approximate a shell or gives thickness to an open T-Spline in Fusion.

Use the Thicken tool to add thickness to a T-Spline surface or create offset faces. Thicken approximates a shell or gives thickness to an open T-Spline.

Thicken does not give exact shelling. Instead, it creates an editable solid with minimal control points. For exact shelling of an open T-Spline, convert to a surface and use Thicken in the Design workspace, Surface tab. For exact shelling of a closed T-Spline, convert it to a solid and use Shell in the Design workspace, Solid tab.

If the body is an open T-Spline, Thicken duplicates the surface and connects the two surfaces around the edges. The specified thickness is measured according to the surface normal for each control point.

If the body is a closed T-Spline, Thicken creates a second, separate surface.

Thicken does not check whether it creates a self-intersecting object. If the input thickness is greater than the minimum curvature of the object, the model will self-intersect. You should visually examine your model for self-intersections after thickening it. To resolve self-intersections, manually move control points.

1. In the Design workspace, Form contextual environment select Modify > Thicken .
2. Select a surface and drag the manipulator to add thickness.
3. Specify one of these Thicken Type options:
   • Sharp Thicken.
   • Soft Thicken, which creates a smooth surface. You can create an external or internal offset.
   • No Edge, which creates an offset surface.
4. To specify the direction of the offset, in the Direction drop-down, specify an axis that the offset occurs along.
   • Click Normal to create an offset along the axis normal to the surface.
   • Click Axis and select an axis along which to thicken the shape, to create an offset along a different axis.
5. To use the tool again, select Repeat Thicken.