A surface represents the geometry associated with a physical part. A surface is a two-dimensional geometric entity that
may be used in automatic mesh generation.
Use the Surfaces: Patch tool to create patch surfaces between free lines that are not connected or surface edges. You can also delete
surfaces with this tool.
Solids are closed volume of surfaces that can take any shape. Solids are three-dimensional entities that can be used in
automatic tetra and solid meshing.
A face is a single Non-uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) and is the smallest area entity. It has a separate underlying
mathematical definition, specified when it was created.
FE geometry is topology on top of mesh, meaning CAD and mesh exist as a single entity. The purpose of FE geometry
is to add vertices, edges, surfaces, and solids on FE models which have no CAD geometry.
A surface represents the geometry associated with a physical part. A surface is a two-dimensional geometric entity that
may be used in automatic mesh generation.
Use the Surfaces: Offset
tool to offset surfaces or solids in a normal direction.
The topology of the surface edges (free, shared edges, and so on) is maintained
during the offset function. Some individual surfaces will be trimmed or extended to
maintain the connectivity.
Note: This functionality is not supported for FE
geometry.
From the Geometry ribbon, click the Surfaces > Offset tool.
Optional: On the guide bar, click
to define offset options.
Select Surfaces or Solids from
the guide bar selector then make your selection in the
modeling window.
Optional: If you're selecting Surfaces with continuous offset, click the
Lines selector then select separator lines.
Offset surfaces in the following ways:
Click-and-drag selected surfaces.
Enter an offset value in the microdialog.
Tip: Offset surfaces in the opposite direction of the surface normal by
entering a negative offset value.