Creates ruled surfaces (surfaces that are flat in some direction at every point) by pulling a surface from a curve or surface curve in a given direction, or by pulling a surface curve at an angle to the surface normal.
The Draft/Flange tool has two distinct uses and effects based on the Mode setting:
Use Draft when you want to make sure a surface can be extracted from an injection mold.
For example, you can use Flange mode to build a “skirt” surface around the edge of another surface.
Set the type of surface created by the tool: Draft or Flange. See the overview above for descriptions of the different modes.
The initial angle of the surface from the pull direction/normal. You can change this value using the draft angle/surface depth manipulator when you use the tool.
The initial depth of the surface from the original curves. You can change this value using the draft angle/surface distance manipulator when you use the tool.
Turn this option on to build draft surfaces on both sides of a curve simultaneously.
This option only appears if Double Sided is on. Turn it on to build only one surface, extending on both sides of the curve.
The Degree and Spans options only appear if Explicit Control is turned on.
Degree of the draft or flange surface in the U direction. (The surface is always of degree 1 in the V direction.)
Number of spans of the draft or flange surface in the U direction. (The surface always has a single span in the V direction.)
This option appears only when Construction Type is Draft.
User Defined – You will explicitly set the initial pull direction vector.
Automatic – The Draft tool will automatically figure out the best initial pull direction each time you use the tool.
The following Vector Options appear only when Pull Direction is User Defined.
These options appear only when Construction Type is Draft.
Select one of these to specify a pull direction along that axis.
Select this option to specify a pull direction normal to the current view. The vector is not drawn in the view windows.
If the current view is changed, click Refresh View Vector to update the vector.
Selecting this option lets you specify the name of an existing vector in the Picked Vector field, or pick the vector in the view. This vector defines the pull direction.
This option is selected automatically when you update the pull direction by manually modifying the manipulator in the view.
This button only appears if View is selected. Click it to update the vector if the view has been modified.
Click this button to create a vector construction object in the view windows. Unless you do this, the vector direction you specified is used by the tool, but you will not see and be able to re-use the vector.
