About the IDD Surface Conversion User Interface
The surfaces conversion user interface consists of:
• The feature icons
• The surface conversion tabs
• Tabs within the surface conversion tabs
The Feature Icons
Convert on the
Structure tab consists of the following buttons:
• Convert to Cylinder • Convert to Plane Convert to Extrude Convert to Revolve The Surface Conversion Tabs
The following are the feature-specific surface conversion tabs that open when you click > and click the feature-specific buttons:
• The Convert to Cylinder tab
• The Convert to Plane tab
• The Convert to Extrude tab
• The Convert to Revolve tab
The following collectors and options are common to all the surface conversion tabs:
• The Orientation reference collector—Allows you to select a geometry item as the orientation reference. You can select a coordinate system, an axis of a coordinate system, axis, edge, a curve, surface, or plane.
• Compute—Recomputes geometry using the defined references.
• Diameter (available only for converting selected surfaces to a cylinder)—Allows you to modify the cylinder diameter.
Tabs within the Surface Conversion Tabs
Each surface conversion tab consists of the following tabs:
• References
◦ Converted surfaces—Lets you add surfaces to be converted to a revolved surface, by selecting it in the graphics window.
◦ Orientation reference—Lets you add a reference that will be used to orient the normal of a planar surface, axis of symmetry for a cylinder, axis of revolution for a revolved surface, or axis of extrusion for an extruded surface.
◦ Use orientation reference as axis of revolution (available only for converting selected surfaces to cylinder or revolved surface)—Allows you to use the selected orientation reference as the axis of symmetry for cylinder and axis of revolution for revolve. By default, this option is selected. If the orientation reference is linear then both the orientation and location of the converted surface changes according to the selected reference. If the orientation reference is planar then only the orientation of the converted surface changes according to the selected orientation.
• Tweak Direction
◦ Coordinate system reference—Lets you select a coordinate system to specify a reference for the direction. Otherwise, a default coordinate system is used.
◦ Origin point—Specifies the translation distance in the direction of the x-, y-, and z-axes.
◦ Orientation—Specifies the rotation angle around the x-, y-, and z-axes.
• Sketch (available only for converting selected surfaces to a revolved or extruded surface)
◦ Sketch plane location—Allows you to select a point or vertex or a point on a surface to define the sketch plane orientation.
◦ Sketch—Opens Sketcher and allows you to create a sketch to revolve along the axis of revolution or to extrude along the axis of extrusion.
• Options
◦ Converted surfaces only—Displays only the new surfaces that will be created, while the dashboard is open. This is the default.
◦ Original surfaces only—Displays only the original surface selected to be converted, while the dashboard is open.
◦ Original and converted surfaces—Displays both, original and new surfaces.
◦ Attach converted surfaces—Attaches the converted surfaces to other geometry with the node and creates a combine node on the GTS Tree. If you clear this option, a separate Procedure node is created on the GTS Tree. By default, this option is selected.