Thicken

Thicken takes one face of a part and makes it into a plate of the same thickness all over. The plate follows the face exactly, flat or curved, and its edges follow the face's edges. Use it for a cover that sits over a curved shape, a skin on the top of a part to 3D print in another colour, a pad on a face, or a shallow recess that follows a curved top. It is in Advanced mode, in the Shell ▾ menu.

It is Thicken in Onshape, Fusion and SOLIDWORKS. In those programs you usually thicken a surface; in SchoolCAD you click a face of a part, like Onshape's Thicken with a face picked.

How to use it#

1. Click the arrow next to Shell, then Thicken.
2. Click the face to thicken. It lights up on the part.
3. Type the Thickness, or drag the arrow.
4. Choose the Direction: Out of the part (the way the face looks), In to the part, or Both sides.
5. Choose New (the plate is its own part), Add (it joins the part) or Remove (it is cut away from the part).
6. Check the preview, then click ✓ or press Enter.

Options#

• New, Add, Remove: what to do with the plate. Add goes onto the part the face is on; Remove cuts it from that part. Choosing Remove sets the direction to In, since a plate outside the part cuts nothing.
• Face: the face to thicken. Click another face to change it. A face on another part works too.
• Thickness: how thick the plate is, in mm. It starts at 3 mm. You can type a sum or a parameter.
• Direction: Out grows the plate out of the part, In grows it into the part, and Both sides puts half the thickness each way (SOLIDWORKS: Both Sides · Fusion: Symmetric).

Examples#

• A cover for a curved top: model the shape, thicken its curved top 2 mm Out as New, and you have a cover that fits it exactly.
• A two-colour print: thicken the top face 0.6 mm Out as New, then give the new part another colour. Exported together as a 3MF, each part prints in its own filament. (For just a coloured face, with no extra layer, use a face colour instead: see Basics.)
• A sleeve on a shaft: thicken the round face of a shaft 3 mm Out: a tube that slides over it.

Tips#

• The plate keeps up with the face: change the part, and the plate changes with it.
• Its faces are named after the faces of the part next to them, so fillets and holes on the plate stay put when the part changes.
• When the 3D engine is on (the status bar says Exact geometry: on), the plate is exact, curves and all. Without it, a curved face is made of flat facets.
• To hollow out a whole part instead, use Shell. To push one flat face out or in, use Push/Pull.

If it does not work#

• Click the face to thicken. Click a face of a part in the view.
• The face to thicken has gone. Edit Thicken and click the face again. An earlier change took the face away.
• Type a thickness more than 0.
• This round face is 40 mm across: thicken it towards its middle by less than 20 mm, or the other way. A plate thicker than the radius would meet itself in the middle.
• A 5 mm thicken does not work on this face. Try a thinner one, or the other direction. The plate would meet itself, such as inside a tight curve.