SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Chapter 7: Selecting Features

Multiple Radius Fillet

The Multiple Radius Fillet option in the Fillet PropertyManager enables you to make multiple fillet

sizes within a single fillet feature. Figure 7.34 shows how the multiple radius Fillet feature looks

when you are working with it. You can change values in the callout flags or in the

PropertyManager.

FIGURE 7.34

Using the Multiple Radius Fillet option

This may seem like an attractive way to group several fillets into as small a space on the

FeatureManager as possible, but I cannot think of a single reason that would drive me to use this

option. While there may be a small performance benefit to condensing several features into one,

many more downsides adversely affect performance:

l (^) Loss of control of feature order.
l A single failed fillet causes the whole feature, and thus all the fillets, to fail.
l (^) Troubleshooting is far more difficult.
l Smaller groups of fillets cannot be suppressed without suppressing everything.
l (^) You cannot change the size of a group of fillets together.
Best Practice
While this may be more personal opinion than best practice, I believe that there are good reasons to consider
using techniques other than single features that contain many fillets, or single features that drive fillets of vari-
ous sizes. Best practice would lean more toward grouping fillets that have a similar use and the same size. For
example, you may want to separate fillets that break corners on ribs from fillets that round the outer shape of a
large plastic part.
Another consideration is feature order when it comes to the fillet’s relationship to draft and shell features. If
the fillets are all grouped into a single feature, then controlling this relationship becomes impossible.n