Round, bevel and hollow with Fillet, Chamfer and Shell

Fillet rounds edges, Chamfer bevels them and Shell hollows the part. All three work on the solid's edges and faces, so they need the exact kernel: wait until the chip in the status bar says "Exact kernel" (see The exact kernel and the mesh kernel). Until then the buttons are grayed.

Fillet or chamfer edges

Pick the edges first

1. Click an edge of the part. The whole edge highlights, and the right panel says Edge: its kind (Straight, Circle or arc, Curve), length and the faces it lies between.
2. To add more edges, ⇧Shift+click them. Each one is marked; ⇧Shift+click a marked edge to drop it. The panel heading counts them ("4 edges") and the status bar says "4 edges picked. Fillet or Chamfer rounds them; Shift+click picks more, Esc clears."
3. Choose Fillet or Chamfer in the toolbar, or the same buttons in the right panel.

The feature is added with all the picked edges: a 2 mm round, or a 1 mm chamfer. The status bar says, for example, "Fillet1 added (4 edges). Change its size on the right; Pick edges changes which."

Or add the feature first

1. With nothing picked, choose Fillet or Chamfer.
2. PartCraft goes into picking: the right panel heading says "Fillet1: picking", the part shows as it was before the fillet (the panel says so), and the toolbar shows Done.
3. Click each edge to add it; click it again to drop it. The status bar counts them.
4. Choose Done (or Done picking in the panel), or press EscEsc or ReturnEnter.

Settings

The list below names each edge by the two faces it joins, such as "Edge 1: Extrude1 end face × Extrude1 side". Remove drops one. Pick edges goes back to picking. Double-clicking the feature in the history does the same.

Edges are remembered by the two faces they join, so they stay on the right edge when you change a dimension earlier in the history.

Variable fillets and chamfer types

• Variable radius (fillet): tick it and set End radius (mm). The radius changes linearly from Radius at one end of each edge to End radius at the other; Swap the ends turns it round.
• Type (chamfer): Equal distance, Two distances (a Second distance on the other face) or Distance and angle (the distance on one face, the bevel at Angle (°) to that face). Flip sides puts the first distance on the other face.

Shell a part

1. Click the face to leave open, for example the top of a box. Or ⇧Shift+click several faces.
2. Choose Shell in the toolbar, or Shell, opening this face in the face's panel.

The part becomes a 2 mm wall with the picked faces open. Settings:

Pick faces changes which faces are open, the same way as picking edges. The list names each one, such as "Face 1: Extrude1 end face". A shell with no open faces is not allowed: "Pick the faces to remove (open), then shell."

Order matters

Features build top to bottom. A fillet before a shell is shelled with the part, so the inside gets rounded corners too. A fillet after a shell rounds only the edges you pick. Move features with Move up and Move down (see Change a part through its history).

Patterns and mirrors cannot copy a fillet, chamfer or shell: "Fillet1 changes the body's edges or walls; it cannot be copied. Copy the features that make solids (extrudes, revolves, holes, imports)." Pattern the holes or cuts first, then fillet all the copies' edges in one fillet.

When it fails

Limits

A variable fillet changes linearly along each edge (one law per feature; no radius set at points along it). Face fillets, full-round fillets and shells with different wall thicknesses are not built yet.