Creating subdivision features

When you are creating a sketch, sometimes you add construction lines, arcs, or other elements that are there to support your actual sketch shape. They are not really part of the sketch geometry, but they help define it.

You can think of bodies in a similar way. Design bodies are the actual body of your part, the geometry you are looking for, while construction bodies can be surfaces or solids that you want to use to modify your design body.

The subdivision modeling commands are located on the Surfacing tab, because they are a free-form type of surface modeling. Like other surfaces, a new subdivision model is created as a construction body, not a design body. Unlike other surfaces, however, subdivision bodies can be a construction surface or a construction solid.

• If your subdivision body was intended to be the actual part geometry, just make it a design body.

• If your subdivision body was made to modify the geometry of another body—your actual part—leave it as a construction and use it, for example, to add or remove geometry or to replace faces.

You can easily make a subdivision body that is a solid into a design body:

• Right-click the construction body in the graphics window or in PathFinder, and choose Toggle Design/Construction.

The construction body is now a design body, and you can treat it as such. For more information, see Working with subdivision features.