SpaceClaim Online Help

Polygons

Use the PolygonComplex object composed of three or more straight lines in a closed figure. Use the Polygon tool to sketch a polygon with up to 32 sides. tool to draw a polygon with between 3 and 64 sides. You can dimension the location of the axis, the length of the radius, the orientation angle, and set the number of sides as you sketch the polygon.

The sides of a sketched polygon maintain their relationship to each other. When you pull a polygon into 3D, faces with a polygon relationship are displayed with a pattern when you select the solid. Changing one face or edge affects all the faces in the relationship.

To draw a polygon

1. Click Polygon in the Sketch group.

2. (Optional) Select Use internal radius in the Options panelArea of the user interface that enables you to modify functions specific to tools. to dimension the polygon based on the diameter of a circle inscribed within the polygon. Uncheck the option to dimension the polygon based on a circumscribed circle.

3. Click to set the center of the polygon.

   You can dimension the points relative to other sketch objects.

4. Drag the mouse to draw the polygon and change its orientation.

   The orientation is the polygon's angle relative to the X and Y axis.

   You can press Tab and type a number to change the diameter, orientation, or number of sides.

5. Click to complete the polygon.

   The sides of the polygon are all related, and act as one object. When pulled in 3D, the edges and faces of the polygonal solid will also maintain this relationship.

   Tip If you trim a polygon sketch with the Trim Away tool, you can drag the original sides of the polygon with the Select tool to recreate the polygon.

To set the number of sides

Press Tab and type a number while you draw a polygon.

or

1. In Sketch modeModeThree ways of designing: Sketch, Cross-section, or 3D. You can switch between modes at any time. for drawing in two dimensions using the sketching tools on the sketch grid. A sketch is a collection of lines and other 2D objects on a sketch grid. Sketching creates regions that can be pulled into 3D. When you pull your sketch into 3D with the PullTool used to distort or deform geometry. Use the Pull tool to offset, extrude, revolve, sweep, draft, and blend faces; or to round, chamfer, or extrude edges. When converting a sketch to 3D, pulling a line creates a surface and pulling a surface creates a solid. tool, regions formed by intersecting lines will become solids and lines will become edges., select the polygon with the Select tool.

2. Right-click the polygon and select Properties.

3. Enter a value for the Number Of Sides property.

   Polygons can have a minimum of 3 sides, and a maximum of 64 sides.

To remove the polygon relationship from the faces of a polygon solid

Right-click a face of the polygon and select Remove AssociationRelationship between objects that enables you to edit them together. For example, when you pull a polygon into 3D, the faces acquire a polygon relationship. If you act on one face or edge, it affects all the faces in the polygon. Another example of an association is a mirror plane between two faces. See MirrorAssociative relationship between two faces or planes mirrored about a centerline plane or planar face. The second object is a copy of the original; if the geometry of the original is changed, the mirrored copy is also updated. Use the Mirror tool to designate a face or plane as a mirror, or to create a mirror plane between two faces., Remove associations.

Any changes you make to the face of the polygon will affect only that face.

Options

The following options are available in the Options panel:

Use internal radius

Select this option to dimension the polygon based on the diameter of a circle inscribed within the polygon. Uncheck the option to dimension the polygon based on a circumscribed circle. In the image below, the blue circle is inscribed within the polygon and the orange circle is circumscribed around it.

The following options are available for every sketch tool:

• Cartesian dimensions: Select a point in a sketch and then click this option to see Cartesian dimensions from the point. Cartesian dimensions show you the X and Y distances from the point you select. If you don't have a point selected, it shows you the X and Y distances from the origin.

• Polar dimensions: Select a point in a sketch and then click this option to see Polar dimensions from the point. Polar dimensions show you an angle and a distance from the point you select. If you don't have a point selected, it shows you the angle and distance from the origin.

• SnapConstrain to objects, angular and linear increments, or grid points while you are sketching or editing solids. You can customize the snapping behavior in File>Options. Pressing Shift while dragging snaps the tool based on your snap settings. You can use the Snap to grid tool to constrain or lock all drawing to grid points only. to grid: Select this option turn snapping on or off while sketching. The cursor will snap to the minor grid spacing increment while you sketch. The defaults are 1mm for Metric and 0.125in for Imperial units. See Units options to change the minor grid spacing.

• Snap to angle: Select this option to turn angle snapping on or off while sketching. The cursor will snap to the angular snap increment while you sketch. The default is 15 degrees. See Snap options to change the angular increment used for snapping.

• Create layout curves: The sketch curves are created as layout curves. If you move the design to a drawing sheet, with Sketch mode selected you must select the Create layout curves checkbox again in the Sketch Options group of the Options panel in order to create layout curves on the drawing sheet. See Layout Curves.

• CurveIn 3D, any line in space. Fitter Options: If the Sketch plane passes through a Mesh objectObjectAnything recognizable by the tools. 3D objects include vertices, edges, faces, surfaces, solids, layouts, planes, axes, and origins. 2D objects include points and lines. created by importing an STL fileFile format native to the stereo lithography CAD software created by 3D Systems. You can export parts and assemblies (.stl).See Stereo lithography. lightweight (facets only). Mesh objects have the ability to snap to the facets., the system will fit curves through the facet points. Lines are displayed green and arcs are displayed blue. The following options apply to the system-generated curves.

  • Fit curves - Uncheck this option if you do not want the system to fit curves through the points.

  • Tolerance - Determines how many points will be found, which also determines how many curves will be created. The smaller the tolerance, the more points will be found and the curves will be generated.

  • Auto-merge - When checked On, the system will merge lines and arcs to form splines. Splines are displayed pink.

Examples

Hexagonal head nut

A polygon pulled into a solid maintains the relationships between its sides. In this example, pulling one side pulls all sides of the polygon.