Part Modeling > Part Modeling > Edit Features > Thicken > About the Thicken Feature
About the Thicken Feature
Thicken features use predetermined surface features or quilt geometry to either add or remove thin material sections in your designs. The surface features or quilt geometry provide you with greater flexibility within your design and enable you to transform that geometry to better meet your design needs.
Typically, Thicken features are used to create complex thin geometry that would be more difficult, if not impossible, to create using regular solid features.
Designing Thicken features requires you to:
Select an open or closed quilt as a reference.
Determine how you want to use the reference geometry: to add or remove thin sections of material.
Define the thickness direction for the thicken feature geometry
Enter the Thicken tool by clicking Model > Thicken.
In order to enter the Thicken tool, you must have a surface feature or quilt selected. Only valid geometry can be selected before entering the Thicken tool. As you enter the tool, your surface feature selection is examined and, if it satisfies one of the Thicken feature conditions, it is placed in the Quilt collector. While the tool is active you can select a new surface or quilt reference. The Quilt collector only accepts one valid surface or quilt reference at a time.
After you specify a valid surface or quilt for the Thicken feature, the resulting geometry is previewed in the graphics window. You can modify attributes of the Thicken feature by using shortcut menus in the graphics window, the Thicken tab, or a combination of the two. You can also directly control the material direction using the direction arrow. The preview geometry automatically updates, reflecting any modifications.
For example, start with this feature:
You can create and change between the following Thicken feature types:
Protrusion
Add a thin section of solid material using the surface feature or quilt geometry as the boundary.
Cut
Remove a thin section of solid material using the surface feature or quilt geometry as the boundary.
As you are defining your Thicken feature you can alter the resulting geometry by excluding surfaces from the intended protrusion or cut operation. You can also add controls to drive the thickness direction with respect to coordinate systems, axes, and surfaces.
Thicken features are subject to normal feature operations, including patterning, modifying, editing references, and redefining.
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If model changes cause the selected surface feature or quilt geometry to become invalid, the Thicken feature fails during regeneration of the model.
While in Assembly mode you can only create Thicken features that remove material.