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Figure 7.25 shows the Fillet PropertyManager. Other options affect preview and selection of items, and these options are discussed in this section.

FIGURE 7.25

The Fillet PropertyManager

Creating a constant radius fillet

Constant radius fillets are the most common type that are created if you select only edges, features, or faces without changing any settings. When applying fillets in large numbers, you should consider several best practice guidelines and other recommendations that come later in this chapter.

There are still some longtime users who distinguish between fillets and rounds (where fillets add material and rounds remove it). SolidWorks does not distinguish between the two, and even two edges that are selected for use with the same fillet feature can have opposite functions; for example, both adding and removing material in a single feature.

Selecting entities to fillet

You can create fillets from several selections, including edges, faces, features, and loops. Edges offer the most direct method and are the easiest to control. Figure 7.26 shows how you can use each of these selections to create fillets on parts more intelligently.

Tip

To select features for filleting, you must select them from the FeatureManager. The Selection Filter only filters edges and faces for fillet selection. You can select loops in two ways: through the right-click Select Loop option or by selecting a face and Ctrl+selecting an edge on the face.

Another option for selecting edges in the Fillet command is the Select Through Faces option, which appears on the Fillet Options panel. This option enables you to select edges that are hidden by the model. This can be a useful option on a part with few hidden edges, or a detrimental option on a part where there are many edges due to patterns, ribs, vents, or existing fillets. You can control a similar option globally for features other than fillets by choosing Tools⇒Options⇒Display/Selection, Allow Selection In HLR [Hidden Lines Removed], and Shaded Modes.

FIGURE 7.26

Selection options for fillets

Faces and Features selections are useful when you are creating fillets where you want the selections to update. In Figure 7.27, the ribs that are intersecting the circular boss are also being filleted. If the rib did not exist when the fillet was applied, but was added later and reordered so that it came before the Fillet feature; then the fillet selection automatically considers the rib. If the fillet used edge selection, this automatic selection updating would not have taken place.

Using tangent propagation

By default, fillets have the Tangent Propagation option turned on. This is usually a good choice, although there may be times when you want to experiment with turning it off. Tangent propagation simply means that if you select an edge to fillet, and this edge is tangent to other edges, then the fillet will keep going along tangent edges until it forms a closed loop, the tangent edges stop, or the fillet fails.

FIGURE 7.27

Deselecting the Tangent Propagation option

If you deselect Tangent Propagation, but there are still tangent edges, you may see different results. One possible result is that it could fail. One of the tricks with fillet features is to try to envision what you are asking the software to do. For example, if one edge is filleted and the next edge is not, then how is the fillet going to end? Figure 7.27 shows two of the potential results when fillets are asked not to propagate. The fillet face may continue along its path until it runs off the part or until the feature fails.

Tip

This may sound counterintuitive, but sometimes when fillet features fail, it may be useful to deselect propagation and make the fillet in multiple features. There are times when creating two fillets like the one shown in Figure 7.27 will work, and making the same geometry as a single feature will not. This may be due to geometry problems where the sharp edges come together and are eliminated by the fillet.

Best Practice

In general, fillets should be the last features that are