Wrap - Surface

The Wrap Model dialog box's Surface tab allows you to wrap a relief directly onto a model that contains a single surface. You can either wrap the relief over the whole of the surface, or over part of the surface by specifying a surface parameter range.

Note: If you open a model that contains more than one surface, CopyCAD selects the surface that was created first. If you don't want to wrap onto this surface, select a different surface.

You use the Model Reference Plane area to define a point on the current model's base plane that you want to match to a point on the surface model:

• Select User defined plane to use the Define Plane button to the right. This displays the Define Plane dialog box, which you can use to define the point and normal that you want to use as the relief reference position.
  
  
• Select Model minimum Z plane to use a point at the centre of the relief at its minimum Z value and with a Z plane normal vector.
  
  
• Select Z zero plane to use a point at the centre of the relief, on the zero Z plane.

You use the Wrap onto (surface model) area to select the model onto which you want to wrap the current model. Click on this list box to display a list of models open in the current CopyCAD session, and click on one to select it.

You use the Wrap parameter range (on surface model) area to select how the model is wrapped onto the surface model as follows:

• If you want to wrap the relief over the whole surface by matching the model reference plane's centre point to the surface's centre point, select Whole surface parameter range. If the surface is significantly smaller or larger than the wrap model, this will cause a lot of distortion.
  
  
• If you want the relief onto part of the surface model, wrapping the relief evenly between the specified surface internals (surface parameter range) you can select one of the following:
  • select Part of surface parameter range (X maps to T) if you want to wrap onto the part of the surface specified by the Surface parameter range below. It wraps the X axis of the wrap model to the T parameters of the surface, and the Y axis to the U parameters.
    
    
  • select Part of surface parameter range (X maps to U) if you want to wrap onto the part of the surface specified by the Surface parameter range below. It wraps X of the wrap model to U of the surface, and the Y axis to the T parameters.

For more information about surface parameter ranges, click here.

You must now use the Surface parameter range area to specify the area of the surface model, over which you want to wrap the model, entering the start and end positions for the T and U parameters.

• If you want to pick a reference point and wrap the relief from this position, based on the surface length, select Surface distance .

Important: This method avoids the distortion that can occur when you wrap using the surface parameters. If you select any of the other three options, CopyCAD wraps the relief equally between the internals in the model. If the gaps between internals are uneven, the relief will be stretched and compressed, as shown in the example below.

You must now use the TU centre position (for distance wrapping) area to specify the reference point on the surface model, to which you want to match the reference point on the wrap model. Enter the centre position in the T Centre and U Centre boxes.

You can use the Wrap size area to change the size of the relief before it is wrapped onto the base model. By default, the Scale factor is set to 1 to keep the model the same size. You can change the model's size by entering a scale factor. This option can be particularly useful when used in conjunction with the Preview option, and avoids the need to scale a model prior to wrapping the model.

For details for how to use the Options area, see Using the Wrap Options.

When you have specified the wrap criteria, you can view a quick preview using the Preview button.

To carry out the full wrapping process, click on the Apply button.

More:

Wrap Model - Overview