Symscape

Use the loft, fill, and stitch functions to create a volume, then unite it with another volume.

Goals

In this tutorial, you will learn how to:

• Create a face by lofting edges
• Create a face by filling in the area between two edges
• Stitch faces together to form a volume
• Unite two volumes into one

Assumptions

1. You have activated the SymLab Builder add-on or SymLab Professional.
2. You are familiar with SymLab essentials.

Create a Box

Select the Geometry Tool Palette. Double-click the Volumes->Box tool and select Done to create a box (volume) in the View Window.

Create a Face Using Loft

Select the Faces->Loft tool and turn on the Keep Operands option in the Properties Panel. Click anywhere in the Properties Panel to apply the change.

You may need to scroll down through the Geometry Tool Palette list to find the Loft tool.

Turning on the Keep Operands option means that the edges you use to create the new face will not be deleted once the face is created.

Drag and drop the Faces->Loft tool onto edge_8, as shown below.

Note that the edges may have different names in your example, so use the diagram below as a guide for the edges to be selected.

Double-click edge_8 in the Select dialog to select the edge. Select Select/Deselect from the menu, then right-click on edge_10. Double-click on edge_10 in the Select dialog to select it. Select Select/Deselect from the menu, then right-click on edge_11. Double-click on edge_11 in the Select dialog to select it. Select Done to create a new face.

If you make a mistake, you can click on Undo to undo the last change.

Use Loft to Create a Second Face

Drag and drop the Faces->Loft tool onto edge_8, then select edge_9, and then select edge_11 (as shown below) to create a second face.

Again, the edges in your example may be named differently, so use the diagram below as a guide.

Delete the Box

Right-click on an edge of the box. Double-click on volume in the Select dialog, and then select Delete volume to delete the box.

Click on the Spin icon if it is not already selected. Left-click-and-drag the mouse in the View Window to rotate the view as shown below.

Fill the Two Open Faces of the Shape

Select the Faces->Fill tool and turn on the Keep Operands option in the Properties Panel. Click anywhere in the Properties Panel to apply the change.

Drag and drop the Faces->Fill tool onto edge_15 (as shown below) and double-click edge_15 in the Select dialog to select it.

Note that the edges may have different names in your example, so use the diagram below as a guide for the edges to be selected.

Select Select/Deselect from the menu, then right-click on edge_16. Double-click edge_16 in the Select dialog to select it, then select Done to fill in the front face.

Drag and drop the Faces->Fill tool onto edge_13, and then select edge_17 (as shown below) to fill in the back face.

Again, the edges in your example may be named differently, so use the diagram below as a guide.

Shade the Four Faces

To select all faces, right-click in the View Window, double-click on Faces, and then select Properties from the menu.

In the Properties Panel, turn off the Transparent option, and then click anywhere in the View Window to shade the four faces.

Stitch the Faces into a Volume

Drag and drop the Volumes->Stitch tool onto the View Window. Double-click Faces, then select Done to stitch the four faces together into a volume.

Note that SymLab used the shaded faces to create the new volume and then deleted those faces, because the Keep Operands option for the Stitch tool was not turned on.

To shade the faces of the new volume, right-click in the View Window, double-click on Faces, and then select Properties from the menu. In the Properties Panel, deselect the Transparent option, and then click anywhere in the View Window to shade the faces.

Create a Torus

Drag and drop the Volumes->Torus tool onto the View Window. Double-click sim in the Select dialog and select Done to create a torus (volume_2). Click on the Fit All icon so that you can see all of the geometry in the View Window.

Translate the Torus

To translate the torus to a new location in the View Window, select the Transforms->Translate tool and set the Translation parameters in the Properties Panel to [0 0 3]. Press Enter on the keyboard to apply the changes to the Properties Panel.

Drag the Transforms->Translate tool and drop it directly onto an edge of the torus. Select Done to translate the torus.

Unite the Two Volumes

Drag and drop the Booleans->Unite tool onto the View Window. Double-click Volumes and then click Done to unite the two volumes into one volume (volume_3).

Right-click on an edge of volume_3, double-click volume_3->Faces and then select Properties. Turn off the Transparent option in the Properties Panel and then click anywhere in the View Window to shade the faces of volume_3.