SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Chapter 27: Working with Surfaces

FIGURE 27.18

Using Replace Face

Note
The Fill Surface is an advanced surfacing function. Sometimes, when talking about advanced surfacing func-
tions, or indeed any software function, users have a tendency to sound a little cynical. This is because the tool
is often expected to work on very complex geometry. It is not always the software’s fault when it cannot per-
form a particular task, or does not do what you imagine you want it to do. Sometimes, the tool is simply not
meant to perform certain tasks, there may be an unseen flaw in the geometry that prevents it from working, or
the user does not understand the settings completely. The more complex the work, the more frequently you
need to find workarounds to get something done. Avoiding problems does not make them go away. In this
book, I have chosen to take a realistic look at most of the features. n

Figure 27.19 shows the Fill Surface blending an intersection between tubes. The image to the left

shows the before condition with the tubes coming together at an edge. The center image shows the

edge trimmed out using the Trim feature, and the right image shows the hole blended over by the

Fill Surface feature.

In Figure 27.20, a solid starts with a Split line on the surface. A sketch is then added, and a Fill

Surface is created using the sketch as a constraint and the Split line as the boundary. The Merge

Result option in the Fill PropertyManager has a different significance than it does in a solid feature

PropertyManager, but the end result is the same. Remember that this is a surface function, and if it

does not merge, then it is left as a surface feature.