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Figure 19.4 shows the target part as transparent, and the tool as opaque, before and after the Indent feature has been applied. The Indent PropertyManager is also shown.

On the DVD

To take a closer look at this part and the Indent feature, look at the part on the DVD named Chapter 19 – Indent Part.sldprt.

FIGURE 19.4

The Indent feature using a tool body

The Indent feature can be problematic if it breaks into multiple areas as it does in this part, due to the ribbing on the underside of the target body. Notice that in the PropertyManager in Figure 19.4, two selections were made in the Tool body region selection box. The tool body is selected on either side of the rib that bisects the tool. This concept is not very intuitive, and you may have to play with the part and the options to understand what it is doing.

The Keep selections and Remove selections options are equally unintuitive, but they determine which side of the target body is indented. For example, if the part of the tool body that is outside of the target body (flat side) were selected instead of the two inside regions, then the resulting part would look as it does in Figure 19.5, where the tool body has been hidden. You can achieve the same result by toggling the Keep selections and Remove selections options. These options exist because sometimes it is difficult or impossible to select the correct areas of a body that is embedded in another body.

FIGURE 19.5

Using the Keep and Remove selections options

Tip

Also notice that toggling the Keep and Remove selections options means that only one region of the tool body needs to be selected to create the original result shown in Figure 19.4.

Using the Move/Copy Bodies and Combine features

The Move/Copy Bodies and Combine features can be demonstrated using the same part. The body that was used in the previous example to indent the main body is moved and then added to the main body in this example.

Figure 19.6 shows the starting and ending points of the process, as well as the PropertyManagers of the two features used to get from one point to the other. Keep in mind that both the Move/Copy Bodies and the Combine features are history-based features listed in the FeatureManager.

In this case, the Move/Copy Bodies feature uses mates. These mates enable you to locate bodies in a way similar to the way they are used in assemblies. One important difference is that with bodies, you must use the actual body geometry of the body that is moving; you cannot use reference geometry such as planes. By clicking the Translate/Rotate button at the bottom of the PropertyManager, you can also position bodies using distances and angles.

In the Combine PropertyManager, you will notice that common Boolean operations, such as union (add), difference (subtract), and intersection (common), are available through this interface.

Tip

You can use an interesting technique in this part. The features creating the smaller tool body and the Move/Copy Bodies and Combine features can be put together into a folder, and the folder itself reordered before the Shell feature. This means that the combined body is also shelled out, and the rib goes down inside of it. This produces an odd error message and unexpectedly places several features into the folder, but it does work.

You may want to open this part in SolidWorks to see exactly how all this was done instead of relying on the figure illustrations. The part used for Figure 19.7 is on the DVD and is named Chapter 19 – Move Body.sldprt.

FIGURE 19.6

Using the Move/Copy Bodies and Combine features

FIGURE 19.7

Reordering features

Using local operations

If you have ever had a modeling situation where you needed to shell out a portion of a part but not the entire part, or you had a fillet that would work if only certain geometry were not there, then you may have been able to benefit from multi-body techniques to accomplish these tasks.

Using the Flex feature

The part shown in Figure 19.8 first appears in