What You Should Know

• Body
• Functional Features
• Solid Functional Set
• Functional Set
• Shell Properties
• Draft Properties

Body

When you create a new Part, an empty PartBody is created. Each body can be empty or contains one Solid Functional Set only. Any Part Design command such as dress-up features can be applied to functional solids and inserted under Body.

Functional Features

To begin creating your 3D shape, you begin by adding functional features to the active body. Functional features are inserted in a Solid Functional Set.

Functional Features represent any type of material as well as empty spaces that define their behaviors. The different behaviors interact in unique ways with each other. The key to modeling with functional features is to understand how their different behaviors interact together to produce the final shape.

Solid Functional Set

Solid Functional Sets contain functional features. You can insert multiple and nested Functional Sets to organize the functional specifications. The Solid Functional Set is also the resulting shape of the functional specifications it contains.

A Solid Functional Set is always inserted in a non-hybrid body. It is located at the fist position of the body. It is unique within the body.

For more information, see Inserting a Solid Functional Set.

Functional Set

Functional Set is used to organize the Functional Features, wireframe, sketches and surface features inside the Solid Functional Set.

A Functional Set is created under the Solid Functional Set or within another Functional Set.

For more information, see Inserting a Functional Set.

Shell Properties

Each solid functional set may contain a single shell property feature that specifies the thickness of the walls globally for the solid functional set. This thickness is then used by functional features that produce walls. It provides an easy and centralized way for modifying thickness once for all during the design process.

By default, the thickness of the shell property is zero. This means that the features are not shelled as long as the value is not modified.

The Shell Properties is also used to define the open faces of the resulting shape.

For more information, see Setting Shell Properties.

Draft Properties

Each solid functional set may contain several draft property features.

A Draft Property feature defines a certain number of mold process properties such as pulling direction, draft angle value and parting element. These properties can then be used by functional features to modify their shapes. The Draft Property feature provides an easy and centralized way for modifying mold properties once for all during the design process.

You can define as many draft properties as you need to manage the different areas of the 3D shape. As an example, you can assign a draft property feature to functional features that define the shape of a slider.

For more information, see Setting Draft Properties.