Tutorials PartCraft help Walkthroughs
Revolve a turned part
Sketch half a profile beside a centerline, revolve it into a round part, choose the axis and angle, and use a revolved cut for grooves.
Written for PartCraft 0.3. The same help is inside the app: press F1.
Revolve spins a profile around an axis, like a part made on a lathe: shafts, pulleys, flanges, knobs. Revolved cut (in the Features group's More menu) spins a profile to remove material, for grooves and recesses.
Revolve a stepped shaft
- Sketch on Front plane.
- Press NN for Centerline. Start on the origin and click a point straight to the right, for example 100 mm along. This is the axis. It is dashed: construction geometry is not part of the profile.
- Press LL for Line. Draw the half profile above the centerline as one closed loop: start on the centerline, go up, step along, and come back down to the centerline, then along it to the start. Its ends must meet: the loop must be closed.
- Dimension the radii (heights above the centerline) and the lengths. A height of 10 above the centerline makes a diameter of 20.
- Choose Exit.
- Choose Revolve. The shaft appears, a full turn.
The profile must stay on one side of the axis. If it crosses: "The profile crosses the axis. Keep it on one side of the centerline." A profile edge may lie on the axis.
Settings
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Operation | Boss (add material), Cut (remove material), Intersect (keep the overlap) or New body | Boss for Revolve, Cut for More › Revolved cut |
| Angle (°) | How far to spin, from just above 0 up to 360 | 360 |
| Axis | First centerline, or any line or centerline in the sketch, listed as "Centerline 1 (l1)" or "Line 3 (l3)" | First centerline |
A partial angle makes a wedge, spun from the sketch plane in one direction.
If the sketch has no centerline and you leave Axis on First centerline: "Draw a centerline (a construction line) in the sketch to revolve about." You can also pick a solid line of the profile as the axis.
Cut a groove
- With the shaft built, open a new sketch on Front plane (the same plane as the shaft's sketch).
- Draw a centerline along the same axis: start it on the origin and keep it level so it gets an H, or type it with Add by coordinates (for example from
0, 0to100, 0). A new sketch cannot snap to another sketch's lines. - Draw a small closed rectangle that overlaps the shaft's edge where the groove goes.
- Choose Exit, then More › Revolved cut.
Revolved faces in assemblies
A revolve has an axis that other features and assemblies can use:
- a Circular pattern uses the last revolve's axis by default (see Pattern and mirror features);
- in an assembly, a joint between faces made by revolves starts as a revolute joint, and Centre on offers "Axis of Revolve1" (see Build an assembly).
True curves and facets
With the exact kernel (the status bar chip says "Exact kernel"), a revolve makes true cylinders, cones and tori: volumes are exact and a STEP export keeps them round. With the mesh kernel, round shapes are flat facets, 64 per turn by default, and volumes are a little under the true value (about 0.16 % at 64). Either way, the view, STL and 3MF are made of facets: set Curves (click empty space, then the right panel) to Fine (128) or Very fine (256) for smoother ones. See The exact kernel and the mesh kernel.