Creating Spherical Surfaces

You can create surfaces in the shape of a sphere. The spherical surface is based on a center point, an axis-system defining the meridian and parallel curves orientation, and angular limits.

Before you begin: Create a 3D shape containing a point and an axis system.

  1. Click Sphere .

    The Sphere Surface Definition dialog box appears.

  2. Select the center point of the sphere.

  3. Select an axis-system.

    This axis-system determines the orientation of the meridian and parallel curves, and therefore of the sphere. By default, if no axis-system has been previously created in the document, the axis-system is the absolute axis-system. Otherwise the default axis-system is the current one.

  4. Click Preview to preview the surface.



  5. Modify the Sphere radius and the Sphere Limitations as required.

    Here we choose -90deg and 90deg for the parallel curves, and 0deg and 240deg for the meridian curves, and left the radius at 20mm.

    Important:
    • Parallel angular limits are comprised within the -90deg and 90deg range.
    • Meridian angular limits are comprised within the -360deg and 360deg range.

  6. Click OK to create the spherical surface.

    The spherical surface (identified as Sphere.xxx) is added to the specification tree.

    Important: You can also choose to create a whole sphere. In this case, simply click from the dialog box to generate a complete sphere, based on the center point and the radius. The parallel and meridian angular values are then grayed.