Power Fillet Quick Help

Box with 3 Fillet Sets of Radius 1, 2, and 3 as in Dialog

Resulting Filleted Box

See Tips and Tricks Below for Help Doing Difficult Fillets

Power Fillet saves its history with the resulting object. After an object has been filleted, you can modify the fillets by selecting the resulting object and executing the "PowerFillet" command.

Follow these steps to construct fillets.

1) Select object to fillet
2) Choose filleting options (type of fillet, radius, etc.)
3) Select edge(s) to fillet using the given fillet options
4) If there are different edges with different options select "Add Fillet Set" and repeat steps 2 and 3 above.
5) Click the "On" checkbox in the "Preview Mode" to see a preview of the fillet.
6) OK when finished defining the filleting.

On:  With this option on, the fillet will display in preview mode as values are changed.
Update Preview:  This option is only enabled when the "On" switch is turned on.  Update Preview will update the preview if changes have been made in the filleting parameters.

A fillet set is a group of fillets with the same settings.  Fillet sets are listed in the "Fillet Set Panel" in the order they were created. The Fillet Set Panel is provided as a convenient means of selecting and editing fillet sets.  The fillet set values contain the following information (in this order):

1)  Number of Edges
2)  Fillet Radius
3)  Active (A) or not active (*)
4)  Fillet Type (CR = Constant Radius, CD = Constant Distance, VR = Variable Radius
5)  Fillet Cross Section (CA = Circular, NR = Approximate Circular, LI = Linear, G1 = G1 Blend, G2 = G2 Blend, G3 = G3 Blend)

Medium:  Uses 5 digits of accuracy for the filleting operation
Low:  Uses 4 digits of accuracy
High:  Uses 6 digits of accuracy
Very Low:  Uses 3 digits of accuracy
Very High:  Uses 7 digits of accuracy

Hide:  Hides the original object from the display and shows only the fillet result
Show:  Show the original object (along with the resulting fillet)
Delete:  Delete the original object
Change Layer:  Put the original object on a different layer
Lock:  Freeze the original object from future editing

Unassign Edge Mode:  Selected edges will be removed from the fillet set (when this mode is off, selected edges are added to
the fillet set).
Add Fillet Set:  Creates a new fillet set
Del Fillet Set:  Removes a fillet set (removes all of the fillets in the selected fillet set)

Active:  If this switch is on, the fillet will be evaluated and displayed.  If the switch is off, the fillet set is ignored; it will not be evaluated.
Radius / Distance:  The fillet radius or distance
Blend Scale:  Scale factor that determines the rate of blending convergence.  The smaller the value, the more gradual the change and the smoother transition between the faces participating in the fillet.

Fillet Type:  
Constant Radius:  Constant radius fillets
Constant Distance:  Fixed chamfer distance
Variable Radius:  Variable radius fillets

Fillet Cross Section:  
Circular:  Circular arc
Approximate Circular:  non-rational approximation of a circular arc
Linear:  Chamfer
G1 Blend:  Blended G1 continuity fillet
G2 Blend:  Blended G2 continuity fillet
G3 Blend:  Blended G3 continuity fillet

Variable radius fillets are defined using pairs of values.  Each pair of values consists of a distance value (in percent terms), and a radius value.  These pairs are listed in the Variable Radius Fillet Panel.  You can select one of these values in the Variable Radius Fillet Panel to edit it.

Add Pair:  Explodes the assembly into its individual parts.  It will explode the assembly based on the selected option (see below).
Remove Pair:  Delete a pair of variable radius values
%:  Percentage distance along the edge for locating the fillet.  For example, 0 = the starting point of the edge, 50 = the middle, and 100 = the endpoint.
Rad:  Radius of the fillet at the specified point
Reverse:  Reverse the order of the fillet definition pairs (so the first pair becomes the last, and the last pair becomes the first)
Remove:  Delete the selected fillet pair
Blend Int:  Perform a blended interpolation

Filleting is one of the most powerful features of Power Solids, it is also one of the most difficult to use. It will take some time and experience with the filleting command to develop the expertise necessary to get it to work on more complex objects. This section is designed to give you some tips to tricks to try should you run into filleting failures.

1) In general you should select and specify fillets for a set of connected edges before doing a "Preview" or "OK" . If you are filleting 3 edges of a box that share a vertex with 3 different radii fillets, you should create 3 fillet sets (one for each radius/edge pair.) before doing a "Preview" or "OK". In the case of a box it would not make much difference but if the object is very complex this may help.

2) If you have fillets of different sizes (10 Radius and 2 Radius) you might want to try applying the larger radius fillets first and then collapsing by setting the history to "Delete Original Objects" before doing the smaller fillets. This deletes the history and you will no longer be able to go back and edit the original fillets so be careful here that you have something you wish to keep.

3) If you have fillets on edges which are not connected to each other (i.e. inner and outer loop of a face, or top and bottom edges of a box), you might consider doing them in two or more steps using the collapse technique described above. This is especially true if the fillets intersect each other. If you do one set of fillets first then the second set can roll over the first set instead of having to intersect them during a single filleting operation.

4) If you have a case where the fillets are relatively large and intersect each other it may fail (for example: large fillets on a hole and outer loop of a face where the hole is very near an edge of the face.), you may want to do it in two steps as described above. This will allow the second fillet to Roll Over the first fillet instead of having to intersect them.