All the objects we’ve used to create our air hockey paddle are basic primitive shapes; cylinders, sphere, and cone. It conveys the general shape that we want, but the edges are hard. We’ll soften the bottom edge by adding a chamfer. You can use the same Chamfer command that you’ve probably been using for using for 2D design. When the 3D modeling workspace is active, you’ll find the Chamfer tool in the Modify panel of the Home tab. It’s in the same button flyout as the Fillet tool. Whichever one you use last will be displayed on top.
When you launch the Chamfer command, select the edge you want to chamfer. AutoCAD will highlight one of the surfaces adjacent to the selected edge. If it has highlighted the edge you want to use as the base surface, you can select OK. If you want to use a different surface as the base, you can choose Next. AutoCAD will cycle through the adjacent surfaces, highlighting each one, until you choose. For example, when I select the bottom edge of the air hockey paddle, AutoCAD highlights the circular face.
If I choose Next, AutoCAD highlights the cylindrical face. Choosing next again cycles back to the circular face.
In this particular case it doesn’t matter which one I choose as the base surface as long as I enter the appropriate values for the following prompts. I’ll go ahead and accept the bottom circular face as the base surface. AutoCAD will then prompt for the base surface chamfer distance (i.e. the distance that will be trimmed off the edge of circular face). I’ll enter a value of 2. It then asks for the other surface chamfer distance (i.e. the distance that will be trimmed off the edge of the cylindrical face). Even though I selected my chamfer edge at the beginning of the chamfer operation, AutoCAD prompts me to select it again at the end. It seems a little strange but at this point you also have the opportunity to choose the Loop option, which selects all the edges on the base surface. Since by base surface is a circular shape, there is only one edge. Below is a side view of the resulting chamfer.
If I had entered the values in a different order (1 for the base distance and 2 for the other distance) or if I had specified the cylindrical face as the base surface, the chamfer would have been 1 unit along the bottom and 2 units along the side.
Key Concept:
- Use the Chamfer tool to chamfer the edges of a 3D model.
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