CAD Features and Timeline
Cindr3D's Design workspace is built around editable features. Prefer feature-driven geometry when a part may need later edits, variants, or documentation.
A typical part follows this sequence:
- Pick a plane or planar face.
- Create a sketch.
- Add constraints and dimensions.
- Finish the sketch.
- Create a feature from the sketch.
- Refine the result with modify tools.
- Inspect the part before export or Prepare.
Core create features include:
- Extrude: push or cut a closed profile.
- Revolve: rotate a profile around an axis.
- Sweep: move a profile along a path.
- Loft: blend between multiple profiles.
- Rib: add reinforcing geometry.
- Web: add webbed support geometry.
- Emboss: raise or engrave text/profile details.
- Patch: create surface-style geometry where supported.
- Hole: create sized holes without hand-modeling cylinders.
- Thread: add thread geometry or thread metadata.
Modify features refine existing bodies:
- Fillet: round edges.
- Chamfer: bevel edges.
- Shell: hollow a body.
- Draft: angle faces for mold/print release.
- Scale: resize bodies or selections.
- Combine: boolean union, subtract, or intersect.
- Offset Face: move a face normal to itself.
- Replace Face: swap a face reference.
- Direct Edit: make targeted body edits.
- Split Face/Body: divide geometry for later operations.
Construction geometry is cheap and pays off later.
Use it for:
- Offset planes.
- Angled planes.
- Tangent planes.
- Midplanes.
- Perpendicular planes.
- Axes.
- Reference points.
Good construction geometry makes sketches easier to place and makes later edits less fragile.
The timeline records feature history in creation order.
Useful timeline habits:
- Rename important features.
- Roll back before exploratory edits.
- Suppress features instead of deleting them while testing variants.
- Edit feature parameters instead of rebuilding from scratch.
- Check downstream rebuilds after changing early sketches.
If a rebuild fails, inspect the first broken feature rather than fixing symptoms later in the timeline.
The component tree lists bodies, sketches, components, and reference geometry.
Tree actions include:
- Show/hide.
- Isolate.
- Rename.
- Duplicate.
- Delete.
- Multi-select with Shift/Ctrl.
Name bodies and components early. It makes drawings, exports, and Prepare handoffs easier to understand.