Creating Protrusions and Cutouts

The Protrusion/Cutout tool interactively creates bosses (protrusions) or cutouts on solids by adding or subtracting volume from a solid. The volume is created or subtracted by extruding a face in Extrude Face mode or extruding a planar NURBS curve (or group of closed, non-intersecting NURBS curves) in Extrude Curve mode.

Four modes are available. The first two modes set the type of operation and the second two determine whether an addition or subtraction of volume occurs.

 

Mode	Description
Extrude Face	Selects the planar face of a solid to add to or subtract volume from the solid
Extrude Curve	Selects a curve or group of curves to add to or subtract volume from a solid
Add	Creates a protrusion by adding volume to the solid
Subtract	Creates a cutout by subtracting volume from the solid

Face-based Addition or Subtraction

 

To add to or subtract from a solid in Extrude Face mode:

1.	Click the Protrusion/Cutout tool from the 3D Modeling tool set, and then select Extrude Face from the Tool bar.

2.	Select either Add or Subtract from the Tool bar to specify whether the solid will have volume added or subtracted.

3.	Click on the desired planar face. The Select Face dialog box opens to help select the correct face, as described in Selecting the Edges and Faces of a Solid. When the correct face is selected, click OK.

4.

A green grab handle is displayed in the middle of the face. Click on the handle and drag to expand (Add mode) or decrease (Subtract mode) the solid volume. The distance of the protrusion or cutout can also be specified by entering a value in the Distance field on the Tool bar. The new solid is previewed on the drawing in red.

5.	Press the Enter (Windows) or Return (Macintosh) key or click the check mark button on the Tool bar to create the protrusion or cutout.

6.	The result can be edited by selecting Modify > Edit Group. The protrusion or cutout is a tapered extrude object; an Angle can be specified in the Object Info palette (see Creating a Tapered Extrude).

Curve-based Addition or Subtraction

 

To add or subtract from a solid in Extract Curve mode:

1.	Click the Protrusion/Cutout tool from the 3D Modeling tool set, and then select Extract Curve from the Tool bar.

2.	Select either Add or Subtract from the Tool bar to specify whether the solid will have volume added or subtracted.

3.	Select the NURBS curve or group of NURBS curves that will be used to create the protrusion or cutout, and then select the solid.

4.

A green grab handle is displayed in the middle of the solid face. Click on the handle and drag to expand (Add mode) or decrease (Subtract mode) the solid volume. The distance of the protrusion or cutout can also be specified by entering a value in the Distance field on the Tool bar. The new solid is previewed on the drawing in red.

In Subtract mode, the distance value can exceed the solid perimeter; the cutout operation is only performed on the selected solid.

5.	Press the Enter (Windows) or Return (Macintosh) key or click the check mark button on the Tool bar to create the protrusion or cutout.

6.	The result can be edited by selecting Modify > Edit Group. The protrusion or cutout is a tapered extrude object; an Angle can be specified in the Object Info palette during editing (see Creating a Tapered Extrude).