CST2013: Shape Creation

The shape creation is one of the most flexible operations. Many different options exist to create the desired models. The following sections provide a basic overview of the available tools. Please refer to the specific manual pages for details.

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.

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: ShapesFaces 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.

See also

Object Creation and Operations Problem Handling