About Surfaces
A surface is a free form feature often utilized in complex parts. To date, creating surfaces inside of SOLIDWORKS has required the elaborate creation of sketch profiles and creation of a surface feature body as a separate step. RevWorks takes much of the difficulty out of the process of creating clean, accurate profiles for lofting, extruding, and sweeping surfaces. For example, the DirectSurf™ module for RevWorks is a powerful method for quickly and directly developing reference and parametric surfaces. In addition to the direct creation of reference surfaces from collected point data, the DirectSurf module provides the option of creating parametric surfaces. DirectSurf achieves this by automatically sectioning and re-lofting the direct surface to create a parametric SOLIDWORKS surface body.
Creating surfaces directly from points allows you to quickly and accurately capture single patch surfaces directly into SOLIDWORKS to be utilized as cutting surfaces or extrusion boundaries or to be thickened into solid features. RevWorks automatically uses your 3D point data to generate one of several different surface types:
Axis-aligned
Point-aligned
Spline-bounded
Each surface type provides you with unique options to fit your surfacing requirements. Also, because digitized surfaces often do not fully cover the desired area, RevWorks allows you to extend the boundaries of the axis-aligned and point-aligned surface types.
When you create a surface, you first choose the surface type and then you digitize the surface directly into the SOLIDWORKS modeling space. You may use either single point or scan point collection mode to collect surface data. When in single-point mode, you can hold the Space Bar down to collect short bursts of data. When in scan-point mode, the data collection filters you choose control data collection. Your digitizer may have multiple options by which to collect data, such as a mechanical trigger in the form of a button or foot pedal. If your digitizer has one or more triggers, buttons, or pedals, use the first to collect points, the second to complete data collection, and the third to delete points starting with the most recent. While you are capturing the surface, the digitized 3D points show up in the active SOLIDWORKS 3D sketch.
The RevWorks DirectSurf module is capable of creating reference surfaces from a surprising little number of points. The more points you take the greater your overall accuracy. RevWorks calculates surfaces using best-fit algorithms to achieve maximum precision. DirectSurf is intended for the collection of patch surfaces, not entire part bodies.
To better familiarize yourself with surfaces, read the following topics: