Creating Shape Features

What is a Shape Feature?

Shape features are the first entities you add to the active body to create the initial shape of the part. Shape features are made up of six types, which interact in unique ways with each other and with the functional features. Shape features represent any type of material as well as empty spaces.

When you create shape features with any of the Functional Molded Part capabilities, inherent in the resulting features is the concept of inside and outside. This is the way that most people view objects, which affects how they would use an object. In the same way, design elements need to be either inside or outside of the product model. Thus, Functional Molded Part provides features with an inherent behavior of existing inside or outside of a material feature within the same body. For example, the behavior of a Rib is to exist inside of a shelled material feature, and the behavior of a Reinforcement is to exist outside of a material feature. Because of this inherent behavior, features can be made before or after creating the shape feature to which they will be applied. Thus, there are no history dependencies.

Shape features are defined by how they are manifested and how they interact with the inside or outside of another shape feature. Depending on the type, a shape feature will do one or more of the following:

• Add material

• Subtract material

• Increase spatial volume

• Decrease spatial volume

• Protect a spatial volume

Therefore, when creating a shape feature that will intersect with another feature in the same body, you would select the volume type according to the results that you need.

Shape Feature Types

The following are the different shape feature types:

Shape Types

You need to define a shape type when creating shape features (or certain functional features). To know how to create the five possible different shapes, refer to the following tasks: