Surfacing > Surfacing > Creating Advanced Surface Features > Creating Boundary Blends > About the Boundary Blend User Interface
About the Boundary Blend User Interface
The Boundary Blend tab consists of commands, tabs, and shortcut menus. Click Model > Boundary Blend to open the Boundary Blend tab.
Commands
1st direction collector—Displays curve or edge chain references in the first direction.
2nd direction collector—Displays curve or edge chain references in the second direction.
Tabs
Curves
First direction collector—Displays curve or edge chain references that create a blended surface in the first direction.
—Reorders the chain up in the connection sequence.
—Reorders the chain down in the connection sequence.
Details—Opens the Chain dialog box to edit chain properties.
Second direction collector—Displays curve or edge chain references that create a blended surface in the second direction.
Close blend check box—Forms a closed loop surface by blending the last curve back to the first curve. Only applicable to single direction curves where the other collector is empty.
Constraints
Boundary list—Lists the chains in the boundary blend.
Condition—Controls the boundary conditions including tangency conditions for edge alignment. Possible conditions for each chain are Free, Tangent, Curvature, and Normal.
Display drag handles check box—Shows drag handles to control the boundary stretch factor.
Add side curve influence check box—Enables side curve influence. In a one-directional blended surface, for boundary conditions specified as Tangent or Curvature, the system makes the side edges of the blended surface tangent to the side edges of the references.
Add inner edge tangency check box—Sets the tangent inner edge condition for one or both directions of a blended surface. This condition applies only to surfaces with multi-segment boundaries. You can create a blended surface with patches that are tangent across inner edges. In some cases, when geometry is complex, dihedral angles at inner edges may deviate from zero.
Optimize surface shape—Smoothes a single surface (not a composite surface) when four boundaries are defined, and tangency (G1) or curvature (G2) connection is applied.
Control Points
First—Adds or removes control points in the first direction.
Second—Adds or removes control points in the second direction.
Fit—Lists the following predefined control options:
Natural—Blends using the general blending routine and resets the parameters for input curves using the same routine to obtain the best approximation for the surface.
Arclength—Minimal adjustments are made to the original curves. Blends curves using the general blending routine except curves are divided into equal pieces and blended piece-by-piece.
Point to Point—Blends point-by-point. Point 1 in the first curve is connected to point 1 in the second curve and so forth.
Piece to piece—Blends piece-by-piece. Curve chains or composite curves are connected.
Developable—If two tangent curves in one direction are selected, you can toggle to determine if you want the developable option or not.
Sets list—Lists sets of control points.
New Set—Adds a new set of control points.
Control points—Shapes the surface by mapping control point locations on input curves.
Options
Influencing curves collector—Displays curve chains to influence the shape of the blended surface or approximate direction.
Details—Opens the Chain dialog box so you can modify the chain set properties.
Smoothness Factor—Controls the surface roughness, irregularities, or projections.
Patches in direction (First and Second)—Controls the number of patches along u- and v- directions used to form the resultant surface.
Properties
Name box—Sets a name for a feature.
—Displays detailed component information in a browser.
Shortcut Menus
Right-click the graphics window to access shortcut menu commands.
First Direction Curves—Creates a surface feature by specifying bounding curves, edges, or datum points in one direction.
Second Direction Curves—Creates a surface feature by specifying bounding curves, edges, or datum points in two directions.
Influencing Curves—Creates a blended surface using boundary curves or edges and additional curves. The system evaluates the curves or edges and creates a blended surface approximating the reference entities, and it allows you to control the amount of deviation from the curves.
Control Points—Adds control points to control the shape of the blended surface.
Clear—Removes all items from the active collector.
Right-click the sensitive zone located next to each outside boundary (first and second directions) to access a shortcut menu commands with the following control boundary conditions.
Free—No tangency conditions are set along the boundary.
Tangent—The blended surface is tangent to the reference surface along the boundary.
Curvature—The blended surface has curvature continuity across the boundary.
Normal—The blended surface is normal to the reference surface or datum plane.