Copy a surface?

I see, thanks. The 0 distance offset makes a new surface body, which I can then move.

Dwight Livingston
SW2006 SP3.1 / Adept 6.0 / XP Pro SP2
2 gB ram / Quadro FX1100

Thanks for you're and Jason's replies.

I wanted a copy of the face in the same part file, not a new part file. I was able to do it by copying a surface body. What threw me was SoildWorks offering to copy a "Body" and I assumed they meant a soild body.

To me it's odd that you can't copy a face. You can move one, but that drags any adjacent faces along with it. Seems they just don't want to create that unattached open surface. In fact, generally they seem reluctant to work with open surfaces, even though tools are provided to do just that.

Dwight Livingston
SW2006 SP3.1 / Adept 6.0 / XP Pro SP2
2 gB ram / Quadro FX1100

What I needed to do was copy a face, translated without rotation. The surface was not planar, so a surface offset would have changed the face, not just copied it. What I did was copy a surface body then deleted the 20 or so faces I didn't want copied. It worked out.

SolidWorks terminology takes a little getting used to. The meanings of "face" and "surface body" are clear, but "surface" seems to mean various things.

Dwight Livingston
SW2006 SP3.1 / Adept 6.0 / XP Pro SP2
2 gB ram / Quadro FX1100

Yes you can copy a face by using surface offset set to 0. This is how most people copy faces and surfaces. You can pick a single face or many faces. The offset set to 0 is an exact copy of that face and shows up in the "surface body" folder. You can then use the "Move / Copy" feature to either move and copy the resulting surface body or just move it. Doing this would save you having to delete faces out of your larger moved surface body.

First a little rant. The features in SoildWorks are not well organized, perhaps set up to look more complicated that need be? How many move/copy functions are necessary? Anyway, I needed to make a translated copy of some surfaces, which I've never done before, so first I try Insert / Features / Move/Copy, but I find that only moves solid bodies. Okay, so I try Insert / Surface / Move/Copy. Certainly that ought ot move a surface. But no, it only will copy solid bodies. In fact, it seems to be the same function. Now that don't seem right.

Any way I can make translated copies of surfaces?

As Jason suggests, in the original part file, do a copy surface (Surface Offset "0" distant) and then do your Insert/Part/Surface (checked)/Lauch Move Dialog,...(locate your part),.. then delete the bodies (surface and solids) you do not need and leave the earlier copied surface body.
Otherwise, don't initially "Launch Move Dialog", and then "Move/Copy,.."

Can you post an example of what you are trying to do?

Another option I can think of is Offset Face under the surfacing commands. Its often used to extract face(s) by inputing a "0" value. Same thing can be done with Move/Copy bodies.


Jason
SolidWorks 2006 SP5.0 & 2007 SP1.1 on WinXp SP2
UG NX 2.0.2.2 on Win2000 SP3

Again I was a little quick to post. The thing accepts surface bodies as well as solid bodies. Not exactly what I want, but it can be made to work ackwardly. This is another case where I'd like to have an unknit feature.

Dwight Livingston
SW2006 SP3.1 / Adept 6.0 / XP Pro SP2
2 gB ram / Quadro FX1100