SpaceClaim Online Help

Shelling faceted bodies

Use the ShellSolidObject that encloses volume. A surface becomes a solid if it encloses volume. or part that is hollowed out from a selected face, leaving a shell of designated thickness. tool to add thickness on the inside or outside of a faceted body.

To Shell a faceted body:

1. Click the Shell tool
2. Select a faceted body
3. Click Complete
4. The Shell is added and a new faceted body is shown in the Structure Tree

Tool guides for a simple shell

The following tool guides help step you through the process. Use the Tab key to cycle through them. As soon as the tool guide switches, the cursor may change to reflect the active guide.

Options

The following options are available to control how bodies are shelled:

Example using the Select Geometry tool guide.

 

A simple block will be shelled.
Using the Select Geometry tool guide, the top face is selected for removal.
Click Complete and the block is shelled with the top face removed.
You can also select facets to remove from the shell. Here, instead of removing the face, only the selected facets will be removed.
Now the shell is a little more interesting.

Adding Basic Infill to shells

Printing the bunny model above could take a long time and a lot of material, if the entire volume is filled.

Infill lets you shell the interior of a model and add an internal support structure. This provides strength while reducing material costs and printing time.

The tool has several options for controlling the size, shape and percentage of the volume filled.

Tool guides for a shell with Basic infill

The following tool guides help step you through the process. Use the Tab key to cycle through them. As soon as the tool guide switches, the cursor may change to reflect the active guide.

Basic Infill options

When you set the Infill Type to be Basic, the following options are available to control the infill:

To shell and add infill using basic shapes

1. Click the Shell tool

2. Set the Thicken direction to Inside

3. Set the Thickness of the shell wall
4. Choose whether or not to keep the original Faceted Body after it is shelled
5. Choose the Basic option
6. Select the Faceted Body to shell
7. Choose an Infill Shape
8. Set the Infill Size options
9. Adjust the Preview
10. Click Complete
11. The Shell is added and a new Faceted Body is shown in the Structure Tree

The images below show preview for Square and Hex Infill shapes.

The Y-axis is chosen for the preview Direction and the Offset was adjusted to place the preview near the middle of the model along the Y-axis.

The image below shows the model shelled with a Hex infill. The body was split and moved to expose the Infill.

The image below shows the model shelled with a 3D lattice infill.

Lattice infills are sensitive to the coarseness of the faceting. Coarse facets produce lattice infills faster. Coarseness is controlled when you convert a solid body to a faceted body using the Convert tool. When converting, use a Maximum Angle in the neighborhood of 30° to get fewer facets and speed up the lattice calculations.

More lattice examples

Lattice   Three dimensional lattice infill pattern
Regular Cube Lattice   Simple cube lattice infill pattern
Cube Lattice With Center Supports   Cube lattice with supports from all corners of the cube intersecting at the center of the cube
Cube Lattice With Side Cross Supports   Cube lattice with cross supports between edges on each face of the enclosing cube
Cube Lattice With Side Diagonal Supports   Cube lattice with diagonal supports between vertices on each face of the enclosing cube
Cube Lattice With Bottom Center   Cube lattice with supports that meet at the bottom face center of the enclosing cube
Cube Lattice With Bottom Center Without Vertical Supports   Cube lattice with supports that meet at the bottom face center of the enclosing cube but without vertical supports
Double Pyramid Lattice   Double pyramid lattice with lateral supports
Double Pyramid Lattice With Cross   Double pyramid lattice with internal cross supports
Double Pyramid Lattice And FaceSide or other surface of a solid. Some examples are the inside surface of a hole or the six sides of a rectangular solid. See Surface. Diagonals   Double pyramid in the center of the lattice with diagonals on faces of the enclosing cube
Diamond Lattice   Double pyramid without the lateral supports

 

Adding Custom Infill to shells

You can also use Custom shapes for the Infill. In the example below, the "X" shape will be used as a Custom Infill.

Tool guides for a shell with Custom infill

The following tool guides help step you through the process. Use the Tab key to cycle through them. As soon as the tool guide switches, the cursor may change to reflect the active guide.

	The Select Solid or Faceted Body tool guide is active by default. It allows you to select solid or faceted bodies to shell.
	The Select Geometry tool guide allows you to select geometry or facets to be removed when shelling.
	The Select Sketch tool guide allows you to select a sketch to be used as the custom infill shape.
	The Complete tool guide completes the shell.

Custom Infill options

When you set the Infill Type to be Custom, the following options are available to control the infill:

Pattern	Choose a Square GridSee Sketch grid pattern or Rectangular Grid pattern
Sizing Options
ScaleSolid or surface: Change the size of the selected object using 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. You can scale dynamically or by entering a scale value. Drawing sheet or cross-section views: Magnify or shrink the view by selecting a ViewOrientation settings that you can apply to your design, including spin, pan, and zoom. You can adjust these settings individually or you can apply one of the following preconfigured views: Trimetric, Isometric, Top, Bottom, Front, Back, Right, Left. You can also select Snap View and click a face to view it head-on. in the Structure tree and editing the Properties panel. to Fit	When you choose this option, you enter a length for scaling the selected custom infill shape. This allows you to increase or decrease the size of the custom shape. The option is Off by default, which uses the custom shape as-is.
Thickness	Sets the infill wall thickness
Fill Options
Fill Shape	The selected shape will be filled with material leaving voids between the shapes.
Fill Spaces	The space between the shapes will be filled leaving a void in the interior of the selected shape.

To shell and add infill using custom shapes

1. Click the Shell tool

2. Set the Thicken direction to Inside

3. Set the Thickness of the shell wall
4. Choose whether or not to keep the original Faceted Body after it is shelled
5. Choose the Custom option
6. Select the Faceted Body to shell
7. Click the Select a Sketch tool guide
8. Select the sketched shape to use as the infill
9. Choose an Infill a Square Grid or Rectangular Grid pattern
10. Set the Sizing
11. Choose what to Fill(void between shapes or the shape itself)
12. Click Complete
13. The Shell is added and a new Faceted Body is shown in the Structure Tree

The images below show some examples.

The "X" shape in the lower left corner is chosen as the custom infill. Scaled to fit is used with a larger dimension to create a larger space between shapes. Fill Shape was chosen to fill the custom shape and leave a void between shapes.
The "X" shape in the lower left corner is chosen as the custom infill. Scaled to fit is NOT used so the shape is applied as-is, which creates and a smaller space between shapes. Fill Shape was chosen to fill the custom shape and leave a void between shapes.