Glossary

A document type that enables you to annotate and compare different versions of a design.

See Coordinates

Modeling engine by Spatial Corporation. You can import and export ACIS files (.sat and .sab).

Axis around which you can rotate a component using the Orient tool.

A point used as the starting point for scaling.

The center ball of the Move handle. You can drag the center ball or use the Anchor tool guide to place the anchor on a solid, face, edge, vertex, or origin.

A member of a linear or rotational pattern that does not move with the pattern. You can anchor one or more pattern members using the Fulcrum tool guide.

See Anchor

Starting point for dimensioning an angle.

See Ruler dimensions

Information you can add to a drawing, such as notes, dimensions, geometric tolerances, center marks, and Bills of Materials.

Plane on which you can annotate designs, drawing sheets, and 3D markups. Use the Create Note tool to select an annotation plane and enter text onto the plane.

Curved line of constant radius; part of a circle. See Sweep arc, Three point arc, Tangent arc.

American Society of Mechanical Engineers standards for engineering drawing practices. You can customize the style of your annotations to conform to ASME standards. See ISO, JIS

Ratio of the length to width of a rectangle or the height to width of an image. When resizing images, it can be important to maintain the aspect ratio to avoid distortion.

Hierarchy of components and subcomponents showing relationship within a design, as shown in the Structure tree. In manufacturing, a unit fitted together from manufactured parts. See Assembly tool, Component

Use the Assembly tools to specify how components are aligned with each other, that is, create a mating condition. You can Align, Center, and Orient components.

Relationship 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 Mirror, Remove associations

Software application for 2D and 3D design and drafting by Autodesk, Inc. AutoCAD's native file format is DWG, its interchange file format is DXF, and its format for publishing CAD data is DWF.

Face of a 3D object through which an axis extends. The axis displays when you move the cursor over the axial face.

Straight line that an object rotates around or that objects are regularly arranged around. See Alignment axis.

Annotation consisting of content from the Bill of Materials. Balloon notes update when changes are made to the BOM table.

See Offset baseline faces

Amount of material added to compensate for changes caused by bending sheet metal. Allowance is required to correct for the change in length caused by bending a flat sheet.

Value used to calculate unfolded lengths of sheet metal. Bend Deduction is twice the distance from the outside mold line to the beginning of the bend (set back) minus the bend allowance.

CSV (comma-separated value) file used to calculate the developed lengths for unfolded or flat patterns to be machined.

Table of components, sub-components, parts, and materials needed to manufacture a finished product.

Smooth and tangent transition between faces or edges; created using the Pull tool.

Sections that appears when you edit a face as a blend using the Edit as Blend tool. You can create, move, and orient blend planes.

Faces you can edit using the Edit as Blend tool. If the face was originally created as a blend, the original blend surfaces are available for editing. If the face is not blended, the tool first converts the face to a blended surface.

Face created by blending between two edges.

A solid or surface.

Segment of a line bounded by one of more intersections with lines or edges. Use the Trim Away tool to delete a bounded line.

Modeling engine by Dassault Systèmes. You can import and export CATIA files.

Sloping corner between two edges created using the Pull tool; angle with equal setback; bevel.

Straight line with both end points on a circle.

Degrees of a circle delineated by a chord. In a Swept arc, the starting point and end point of the arc define the chord.

Hide all geometry in a design above or below the grid or selected plane.

Intersecting lines that enclose an area to form a region when you sketch shapes in 2D. The regions will become solids and the lines become edges when you pull your sketch into 3D.

Contiguous sketched lines or edges. Can be selected by double-clicking one of the edges or lines.

Relationship between faces that share the same center of rotation. If you check the Coaxial Face Groups box in the Display tab, faces that share an axis are indicated with blue shading.

A tool used to cut or glue geometry together.

Object in a design, including the top-level design component. Each component consists of any number of objects, such as solids and surfaces, and can contain sub-components. You can think of a component as a "part." Components can be saved as a separate file. An external component is another design inserted as a component of your design. Making the component internal prevents changes from being made to the external component file. You can also create an external component by saving a component as a separate file. See Lightweight components, Assembly

Default configuration for a fillet. The radius of the rounded corner is uniform across the length of the line or edge. See Fillet, Variable radius round

Shape drawn with a Sketch tool to help you create an accurate sketch. Construction lines become axes in 3D. They are also useful for creating mirrors.

In the user interface, a list of functions specific to the operation that you are performing. Access the context menu by right-clicking in the design window.

Non-parallel lines. With the Dimension tool, you can annotate converging lines at a virtual sharp.

Method of inputting points based on distance and angle. Absolute coordinates are measured from the origin (x and y for 2D and x, y, z for 3D).

Method of inputting points based on distance and angle. Polar coordinates are measured by entering values for distance and angle.

Method of inputting points based on distance and angle. Relative coordinates are measured from the selected point (x and y for 2D and x, y, z for 3D).

See Fillet (interior corner) or Round (exterior corner)

Mode used to edit solids by working with their edges and vertices in cross-section. In this mode, pulling a line pulls a face, and pulling a vertex pulls an edge. To create a cross-section view, you select the face that will be used to set the cross-section plane. Hatching is used to show the intersection of the cross-section plane and a solid.

One of the view selections for drawing sheets. Cross-section view shows a cross-section through your design. You create a cross-section view from one of the other views on the drawing sheet. See General view, Projected view, and Detail view.

Analysis tool that displays a fringe graph or color shading to represent the curvature along curves or edges. Values indicate how curvy or "swoopy" the curve or surface is at each point.

In 3D, any line in space.

A small cross that appears on the sketch grid at the center of a circle, ellipse, polygon, or arc.

A slot created by pulling a hole along the axis of a driving cylinder. A 360 degree curved slot is a round cut. See Radial slot.

When using the Combine tool to split a solid or surface, the Cutter object is the solid or surface you use to cut the target. Use the Select Cutter tool guide to select the Cutter object.

The surface of a cylinder, formed by points at a fixed distance from the axis of the cylinder.

Object that is assumed to be an exact size and shape, and be in an exact location, that is used to locate or establish geometric relationship of other objects.

Symbol attached to a point, axis, or plane that must be referenced for machining and inspection.

2D or 3D model that contains at least one top-level component.

See component

Area in the user interface that displays your model or assembly. Also known as Workspace.

Create separate surfaces from individual pieces of a sketch, or objects or faces in 3D. You can detach protrusions to move them with the Move tool's Detach First option.

Aspects of a design incorporated to communicate with others or submit the design for review. Use the tools on the Detailing tab to annotate designs, create drawing sheets, and review design changes. You can customize detailing settings to conform to standards or create your own custom style.

One of the view selections for drawing sheets. Detail view creates an enlarged view of a particular area, magnifying a portion to show more detail. You create a detailed view from one of the other views on the drawing sheet. See General view, Projected view, and Cross-section view.

Annotation on a drawing showing measurement of an edge or face. Use the Dimension tool to add measurements to your design, drawing sheet, or 3D markup.

Precise sketching by entering measurement values for the current line or relative to other lines and points. See Dimensions.

Values or expressions you enter for precise control during the creation or modification of a design. You can dimension every element, from lines in sketches to faces of solids. See Ordinate dimensions, Progressive dimensions, Ruler dimension.

A model file (.scdoc) that may contain any combination of design versions, associated drawing sheets, and 3D markup slides.

Angle or taper on an object that facilitates removal from a mold or die. You draft by pulling one or more faces around about another face that you selected as the pivot. You can add or cut material as you pull.

See Draft

Shape used when pulling a hole to create a curved or radial slot. You select the face or axis of the driving cylinder to guide the shape of the slot.

Ruler dimension created with the Move, Pull, or Select tool and saved within a group.

Edge you select to drive the change when using the Pull tool. Select a driving edge for revolves, directed extrusions, sweeps, and drafts. The driving edge is shown in blue.

Face you select to drive the change when using the Pull tool. Select a driving face for revolves, directed extrusions, sweeps, and drafts. The driving face is shown in blue.

AutoCAD native drawing format. You can open and insert drawings, parts, and assemblies. Drawings can be inserted as layouts. You can export parts, assemblies, drawing sheets, and 3D markup slides.

Drawing Interchange Format or Drawing Exchange Format. CAD data file format developed by Autodesk for enabling data interoperability between AutoCAD and other programs. You can open and insert drawings, parts, and assemblies.Drawings can be inserted as layouts. You can export parts, assemblies, drawing sheets, and 3D markup slides.

Not sharing the same center.

3D object composed of a single outside boundary of a feature. A line sketched in 2D becomes an edge when you pull your sketch into 3D.

Tangent chain; a continual series of edges that are connected edge-to-edge. Double-clicking an edge in the chain selects the entire chain.

All of the edges around a face; a continual series of edges that are connected edge-to-edge forming a closed loop. Double-clicking an edge in the loop selects the entire loop.

When you blend between two faces, the blend surface begins tangent to the edges of the initial faces and ends tangent to the edges of the end faces. By deciding which edges you do not want to use for tangency, you can create a blend with or without the effects of the edges.

Using the Edit as Blend tool to move or orient blend planes to edit a face as a blend. See Blend plane, Blend surface.

Geometric shape described as a circle viewed at an angle; oval with two centers of equal radius.

Term used to refer to any object in a 2D sketch or 3D drawing.

View of components in which objects are shown along an axis line.

The outer boundaries of the objects you have drawn.

To pull a face along with its edges. The edges extend to bound the extruded face, creating a new section defined by the edges.

Side 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.

Horizontal and vertical lines, displayed using the Face Grid tool, that define any face or surface you select in your design.

Modes you can select for displaying a solid or surface. You can set the display to be transparent, opaque, or metallic. See Graphics styles.

Simple triangular face used to describe surface geometry in STL (stereolithography) file format.

Make the geometry under the sketch grid more transparent, by selecting Fade Scene Under Grid in the Display tab. Selecting this option enhances the visibility of your sketch.

Use the Fill tool to simplify or clean up geometry by extending surrounding faces to eliminate a selection. The selected region is filled in or healed with the surrounding surface or solid.

Rounded corner at the intersection of two lines or edges; concave intersection between two surfaces. Fillet refers to an interior corner; exterior corner is known as a round. You can draw a fillet using the Create Rounded Corner tool or by selecting the Fillet (Constant radius round) option from the Pull options. See Round.

See Fillet

See Selection filter

See Note

Hinge; pivot point. When using the Move tool, you can select an object and use the Fulcrum tool guide to move other objects around it.

Pull tool option that enables you to revolve 360 degrees or to the next face, sweep through the full trajectory, or blend through selected faces.

One of the view selections for drawing sheets. General view makes the selected view independent of the view used to create it. See Projected view, Cross-section view, and Detail view.

Annotation symbols used for dimensioning geometry in technical drawings; usage is guided by ASME, ISO, and other standards.

A rectangle with ratio of side lengths (approximately 1:1.618) considered by artists and architects to be aesthetically pleasing. As you sketch a rectangle, an indicator line appears when the shape has the proportions of a square or golden rectangle.

Modes you can select for displaying a design. You can display geometry as shaded, perspective shaded, wireframe, wireframe with hidden lines displayed in light gray, and wireframe with hidden lines removed. You can apply styles to your entire design or drawing sheet, to individual layers, or to individual views in your drawing sheet. See Face styles.

See Sketch grid

See Face grid

Sets of objects that appear in the Groups tab. You create a group from any set of selected objects. Information such as Selection, Alt+selection, move anchoring, axis, and ruler dimension is all stored with the group.

See Geometric tolerance

See Tool guides

See Fill

Pull tool option that revolves the selected shape around an axis to create a screw or drill shape. You control the height, direction, pitch, and taper.

Tool used to return the view to the Home settings. You can customize the Home view tool so that it displays your design with a specific orientation, location, and zoom level.

A line that does not define a corner. For example, you might create an imprinted edge on a face of a cube, if you want to divide the face and pull different parts. Imprinted edges are often created when importing designs.

See Project to sketch

Edges where solids intersect each other or volumes created by the intersection of solids, surfaces, and components in your design; can be displayed using the Analysis tools.

A tool used to split solids and faces.

The inverse of the current selection in the active component. For example, if you select the top face of a cylinder, right-click and select Select > Inverse Selection, the entire cylinder except the top face will be selected.

International Organization for Standardization standards for architectural and engineering drawing, including guidelines for dimensioning and tolerancing. You can customize the style of your annotations to conform to ISO standards. See ASME, JIS.

3D view of surfaces and edges, oriented to show the top, front, and side faces of your design. The angles between the projection of the x, y, and z axes are all equal at 120°. See Trimetric view.

Japanese Standards Association standards for technical drawings. You can customize the style of your annotations to conform to JIS standards. JIS defaults are the same as ISO, except that JIS uses third-angle views while ISO uses first-angle views. See ASME, ISO.

Parameter of bends in a sheet metal part used to calculate the bend radius. K-factor is a percentage of the metal thickness and depends on factors such as the material and type of bending operation. Relates to the depth of the neutral axis; a line within the sheet where the length does not change when the sheet is bent. The inside of the bend is under compression, the outside is under tension, and the neutral axis occurs somewhere between the midpoint of the material (K-factor=0.50) and a point closer to the inside of the bend (K-factor=0.25).

Grouping mechanism for visual characteristics such as visibility and color. You can group objects on layers to organize your drawing. Layers are especially useful when you want to show or hide annotation planes.

2D drawing mode that is most useful when you have no immediate need to generate 3D objects from the lines in the layout. If you try to pull layout lines to 3D, they do not behave the same way that sketched lines do. Think of a layout as a pencil drawing made on your design. When you are ready to use your layout to create geometry, you must project the layout lines to a sketch. Projecting a layout line to a sketch is like inking the line. You can import a 2D AutoCAD DXF or DWG file as a layout.

You can select from the Materials Library in the Properties panel and add them to your Local Materials. In Scripting, the Class Library is a help document that describes the API.

Graphics-only representation of a design. When inserting an external file into a design, select the Enable lightweight assemblies option to load only the component's graphic information. This improves performance of large and complex assemblies for quicker viewing. When you are ready to work with the component, you can load the geometry information.

See Lightweight assembly

A straight line, arc, or spline drawn in Sketch mode or on a layout plane. Lines have length but no area. When you pull a sketch into 3D with the Pull tool, lines become edges.

See Library

Slides you can create to highlight and communicate the differences between versions of a design.

Analysis tool used to display mass properties, or volume information for the solids and surfaces in your design.

See Mass

Property that you can assign to an object, consisting of material name and attributes such as density and tensile strength.

See Library

Attribute of components that specifies how they are aligned with each other. You create mating conditions with the Assembly tools.

Tools for displaying measurement properties of the edges, faces, and solids in your design.

Object created by importing an STL file lightweight (facets only). Mesh objects have the ability to snap to the facets.

Set of tool-specific options that appears when you right-click in the Design window. You can also access the options in the Options panel.

Associative 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.

Three ways of designing: Sketch, Cross-section, or 3D. You can switch between modes at any time.

See Zoom box in

A tool used to translate or rotate geometry.

The plane, face or edge around which you want to pivot.

Sheet metal: the line within a sheet where the length does not change when the sheet is bent; axis.

Edges that do not lie in the same plane. See Planar edges.

The vector that is perpendicular to a flat plane at the selected point. In the case of a non-flat plane, the vector that is perpendicular to the plane tangent to the surface at the selected point.

Annotation placed on a design, drawing sheet, or 3D markup. Notes contain text or symbols that you insert and can be connected to geometry by a note leader.

Anything recognizable by the tools. 3D objects include vertices, edges, faces, surfaces, solids, layouts, planes, axes, and origins. 2D objects include points and lines.

Distance an edge, segment, or curve is moved or copied.

See Offset relationship

A relationship between two faces that is maintained in the 2D and 3D editing tools. Offset relationships are created when you define a relationship using the Offset tool, create a sheet metal part, or Shell a solid.

Pulling a face without selecting the edges. The pull extends the neighboring faces without creating an edge. The neighboring faces extend to bound the offset face, creating a new section defined by the adjacent geometry.

Using the Offset Line tool to create an offset of any line or spline in the grid plane. A new object is created at a specified distance from the selected object.

Area of the user interface that enables you to modify functions specific to tools.

X or Y distances that originate from a single location, which is usually the lower left corner of the object. Also known as datum dimensioning or baseline dimensioning

Property that you define when sketching a polygon. Orientation angle determines the polygon's rotational position.

Zero point in coordinate system. You can insert an origin at any location in your design where you can anchor the Move tool, enabling you to dimension from the origin or quickly move the sketch grid to the origin. You can also insert an origin at a solid's center of mass or volume.

Axis through the origin.

Projection that is constrained to regular 90° angles (top, bottom, left, and right of the current view). When you create a projected view from one of the other views on the drawing sheet, the available projections are orthogonal (orthographic).

Move a drawing around by dragging the drawing area around your screen; move the viewpoint laterally relative to the drawing.

Move two fingers together across the screen.

Sections of the user interface that initially appear along the left side of the application window and include: Structure panel, Layers panel, Selection panel, Groups panel, Options panel, and Properties panel. You can dock and detach these panels.

Parasolid geometric modeling kernel. You can open and insert parts and assemblies and export parts and assemblies.

A component upon which other components depend. For example, in a block with a hole, the block is the parent and the hole is the child.

Fill tool option that uses the initial tangency of the neighboring faces to fill the selected edges. Faces are blended into a smooth, single-face patch, instead of extending the faces attached to the edge until they intersect. Deselecting the Tangent extension option ignores the tangency of the neighboring faces.

Pull tool option used to go all the way around when blending faces.

A cylinder, cone, or other revolved surface.

Unit of length that a helix face shifts per 360° rotation; distance from one point on a thread to the corresponding point on the next thread.

Line around which a face is revolved using the Pull tool.

Head-on view.

Two or more edges that lie in the same plane. You can select planar edges and select the Plane tool from the Insert ribbon group to insert the plane defined by the edges.

Face that lies within a plane.

Construction geometry consisting of a flat surface. Planes can be used for a 2D sketch, section view of a model, a neutral plane in a draft feature.

Product Manufacturing Information. You can import PMI if you check the Import Part Manufacturing Information box when importing CATIA files.

Single location in the sketch grid. 2-D object that has no height, width, or length. The origin, an axis, and a vertex are examples of points. Use the Point tool to sketch a point on the sketch grid. Points are useful as a dimensional reference, for splitting, and for creating a point on a line or curve through which you want to draw a three-point circle.

See coordinates

Complex 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.

Advanced selection tool available from the Selection tab. Enables you to search for and select all objects with geometry similar to the currently selected object.

Line in space; outline of an object; used to describe objects when sweeping or blending.

Tool used to convert 2D layout lines to a sketch so you can use the layout to create geometry.

One of the view selections for drawing sheets. You create a projected view from one of the other views on the drawing sheet to show another side of the model. See General view, Cross-section view, and Detail view

Area of the user interface that displays editable details about the selected object(s). This panel is initially displayed on the lower left side of the screen, but can be moved.

Tool 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.

Tools for detecting anomalies or discontinuities in surfaces.

Tool icons that appear at the top of the user interface, next to the File menu, and include common Windows commands such as Open, Save, and Undo. You can customize the toolbar so that it contains the file-related shortcuts you use most often.

A slot created by pulling a hole toward the axis of the driving cylinder. See Curved slot.

See Fillet (interior corner) or Round (exterior corner)

Line used as the starting point for dimensioning.

When you sketch shapes in 2D using the sketch tools, regions are formed by closed or intersecting lines. The regions will become solids and the lines become edges when you pull your sketch into 3D with the Pull tool.

An unblended face. The face must be converted to a blended face before you can edit the face as a blend. See Blend surface

See Coordinates

Tool that removes an associative relationship. For example, removing a polygon relationship enables you to make changes to only one face of the polygon solid without affecting the other faces. See Associations.

Mode available from the Properties panel for a view on a drawing sheet. Use Rendering mode to change the Graphics style for the view. Select Inherit if you want to link the graphics style to the parent view. See Graphics styles.

Move in a path around an axis. Use the Pull tool to revolve faces, edges, or a helix around an axis. The axis may be a straight line, axis, or edge. See Subtractive revolve.

A straight line, axis, or edge around which you revolve a face, edge, or helix.

Design: Using the Rotate tool to spin a design 90 degrees in the plane of the screen. You can rotate your design clockwise or counterclockwise. Object: Using the Move handle to spin an object around an axis.

Hold one finger on the axis you want to rotate around and move the other finger in an arc that is centered on your first finger.

Pull tool option used when blending faces to create cylinders and cones whenever possible.

Rounded corner at the intersection of two lines or edges. Round refers to an exterior corner; an interior corner is known as a fillet. Rounds and fillets are both called rounds. See Fillet, Constant-radius round, Variable-radius round.

Grouping that is created each time you fill a round. You can reattach a group of rounds as long as some portion of the original edges (or faces that bordered the edges) still exists in your design. See Group.

Option used to enter precise dimensions when pulling or moving. Dimensions may be linear when moving or pulling, or angular when rotating.

Solid or surface: Change the size of the selected object using the Pull 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 View in the Structure tree and editing the Properties panel.

File format for SpaceClaim files (.scdoc). Files comply with the Microsoft Open Packaging Convention, which is also used by Microsoft Office 2007. These files are actually zip archives with a special structure, the contents of which are primarily XML data.

Design mode in which you edit solids by working with their edges and vertices in cross-section. View is cut away to show interior detail.

See Section

Drop-down control in the status bar that can be used to limit the selection of objects. Only object types you check will be selected; for example, only faces and edges.

Area of the user interface where you can locate objects similar to the ones selected. See Power selection.

Solid or part that is hollowed out from a selected face, leaving a shell of designated thickness.

Association that stays with a solid when it is moved to another component, unless the relationship would link two components when it is moved. See Shell.

Edge that is rotated to conceal a 3D object and appears as a 2D line.

Pattern of regularly spaced lines that guides you when sketching. The sketch grid makes aligning and drawing objects easier.You can adjust the units and spacing of the grid, as well as how solids are displayed when the grid appears.

Mode 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 Pull tool, regions formed by intersecting lines will become solids and lines will become edges.

See Stereo lithography

Constrain 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.

Tool used to display the head-on view of a face. You can also use the tool to "throw" the highlighted face to the top, bottom, right, or left.

Object that encloses volume. A surface becomes a solid if it encloses volume.

Tool used to re-orient your design in any direction, allowing you to view it from any angle.

Axis about which you spin your design when you use the Spin tool.

A continuously curved line, without sharp boundaries (that is, without vertices). Create a spline by defining a set of points using the Spline tool. A spline becomes an edge when you pull it with the Pull tool.

Using the Combine tool to split solids or surfaces. You select a solid or surface to use as a Cutting tool to cut the target. See Cutter object.

Standard for the Exchange of Product model data (ISO 10303). Defines a methodology for describing product data. You can select the STEP protocol when you export designs.

Technology used for rapid prototyping, in which a laser hardens successive layers of a photopolymer to create a part with a shape defined by a computer model.

Tool guides that are sticky appear with a double outline when clicked. After you click it, the tool guide remains selected so you can select multiple objects by clicking on each object.

File format native to the stereo lithography CAD software created by 3D Systems. You can export parts and assemblies (.stl).See Stereo lithography.

Display in the Structure panel that shows you each of the objects in your design. You can expand or collapse the nodes of the tree to view the objects. You can rename objects, create, modify, replace, and delete objects, as well as work with components.

Manipulation (revolve, draft, pull, etc.) of a solid in which material is removed. In editing tools performing subtractive operations, the cursor changes to - to indicate that the edit is subtractive.

Two dimensional object that has no thickness (as opposed to a face, which is part of a three-dimensional object). A surface has area but no volume. See Face.

Annotation you can add to a drawing that provides instructions for material removal during manufacturing.

Pull a surface or face along a line or edge using the Pull tool. You can sweep faces and edges, and select straight or curved lines or edges along which to sweep. Sweeping along a spline is a pulling technique for creating a smooth, swoopy shape. See Trajectory.

Arc created by defining a center point and two end points; drawn using the Sweep Arc tool.

The circular path followed by a Swept arc. See Swept arc.

See Trajectory

See Sweep arc

Line that touches a curve (arc or circle) at only one point, without crossing over, and is perpendicular to the radius at the point of tangency. You can sketch a line tangent to a curve or you can sketch an arc tangent to a line or curve.

Arc that is sketched using the Tangent Arc tool, using a point on a line or curve as the starting point.

See Edge chain.

Transition edge between rounded or filleted faces in hidden lines visible or hidden lines removed modes in drawings.

See Patch blend

Faces created by rounds or when edges are drawn on a face.

Angle of a helix or threads made on a conical surface. See Helix, Thread.

The object you want to cut, when using the Combine tool to split a solid or surface.

An approach for data exchange between CAD programs. Tessellation represents entities such as lines and surfaces in a CAD system with tiny triangles (polygonal data representations). Data formats such as XML and VRML are examples of tessellated data.

Set of view navigation options used for spin, pan, and zoom.

Edge across the thickness of a sheet metal wall.

The end face of a sheet metal wall. The thickness face is shown highlighted in orange in the image below.

Texture created on the surface of a cylinder, cone, or hole using the Annotation tools.

Arc created by defining a starting point, an end point, and a radius; drawn using the Three-Point Arc tool.

Functions that are specific to the selected tool.

Doughnut-shaped object created using the Pull tool to sweep a sketched shape around an axis on a circular path.

Straight or curved line or edge along which you sweep a face or an edge.

Move in a plane (x, y, or z).

Delete a line portion bounded by an intersection with a line or edge.

3D view of surfaces and edges, oriented to show the top, front, and side faces of your design. Compared to isometric view, trimetric view angles the front face slightly towards you, shows less of the side face, and less of the top. This is the default Home view. See Isometric view.

See Face Grid

See Face Grid

Fillet created from a constant-radius round by selecting one edge of the round and pulling it to a new radius. See Fillet, Constant-radius round.

Sheet metal property; sets the width of the tooling that produces a bend.

Point that terminates a line; point at which two or more lines or edges intersect. Vertices can be selected for sketching, dimensioning, and other operations.

Orientation 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.

Point of intersection formed by extending converging lines.

The side face of a sheet metal wall. The two perpendicular wall faces are highlighted in orange in the image below.

View mode in which all edges of the part or assembly are displayed.

Axes that set the default orientation of the design in the Design window. Display the World origin by checking the World Origin box on the Display tab.

Tool used to pan and zoom until the design fits within a selected area.

Tool used to enlarge or contract the view so that the selected face, the selected edge, or the design fills the Design window. If you are working with a drawing sheet, Zoom extents will fit the drawing sheet to the Design window.