SolidWorks® Surfacing and Complex Shape Modeling Bible

Chapter 12. Using Direct Editing Tools

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Using Move Face

• Using Delete Face

• Using the Freeform feature

• Using Flex

• Using Deform

• Tutorial

Direct editing tools (sometimes also called direct modelers or non–parametric modelers) enable you to edit 3D geometry directly, instead of indirectly through a set of parameters. This means that you can move a face directly instead of editing it indirectly through a dimension on a sketch. The most important implication of direct editing is that you do not have to worry about how something was created — it removes the process–based part of working with CAD data. It is a polar opposite to parametric modeling in many respects.

Using direct editing, you might work this way: "Move this face 1.5 inches in that direction," whereas in parametric modeling you would work this way: "Decrease the length of this sketch element by 1.5 inches." With direct editing you are concerned only with the resulting geometry, while with parametrics you are concerned primarily with the process of how you make the geometry.

The CAD industry as a whole is starting to emphasize direct editing more and more as a tool for non–specialists, and as a way to circumvent complex parametric modeling schemes. I do not believe that direct editing will ever completely replace parametric modeling, simply because the benefits of parametrics are real and have been demonstrated many times. Still, not everyone needs the "design intent" capabilities of parametric modelers. For some users ...