Sketch sections using

• lines, rectangles, datum lines and points
• circles, arcs of a circle, datum circles
• cubic Bezier segments, C2 interpolating splines
• text in a TrueType font, exportable as vectors
• trims to split lines and curves where they intersect
• tangent arcs, to fillet lines and curves
• line styles for stroke color, stroke width, fill color
• adjustable snap grid, for entities and text
• menu item, keyboard shortcut, or toolbar
• cut and paste, in plane and from workplane to workplane
• background image with specified scale, for ease of tracing
• 3Dconnexion six degree of freedom controllers

Constraints and dimensions on

• distance (or line length), point-line distance, diameter
• projected distance, along a line or vector
• angle, curve-to-curve tangency, parallel, perpendicular
• horizontal, vertical
• equal length, equal angle, equal radius, length ratio
• line length equals arc length
• point on line, point on circle, point on point, point on face
• point at midpoint of line, line’s midpoint on plane
• points (or line) symmetric about line or plane
• 2d (projected into specified plane) and 3d geometry
• lengths in metric or inch units
• lengths entered as arithmetic expressions (32.6 + 5/25.4)

Build solid model with

• an extrude, lathe (solid of revolution) or helix from a sketch
• Boolean operations: union (add material), difference (remove material), intersection (leave only common material)
• parametric step and repeat (pattern), rotating or translating
• operations performed on either meshes or NURBS surfaces

Parametric and associative assembly

• link parts and drag them with six degrees of freedom
• link mirrored or with arbitrary scale
• place parts in assembly using constraints
• link surfaces, and merge them using Boolean operations
• link lines and curves, for 2d work or solid operations later
• changes in parts propagate automatically into assembly

Analyze with

• measurements on a part or assembly (of point coordinates, line length, point-point distance, point-face distance, projected distance, face-face angle, point-line distance)
• path traced by mechanism, exportable into a spreadsheet
• area of a plane sketch, volume of a solid shell
• degrees-of-freedom check to show unconstrained points in sketch
• interference check for assemblies
• “STL check” (vertex-to-vertex and not self-intersecting) for mesh

Export

• 2d vector drawing as DXF, EPS, PDF, SVG, HPGL, STEP
• toolpath as G code
• as either piecewise linear segments or exact curves
• wireframe model, hidden-line removed model, vector shaded surfaces
• isometric view, orthogonal view, user-specified other view
• section of solid model
• with cutter radius compensation
• with adjustable canvas size
• 3d wireframe as DXF, STEP
• triangle mesh as STL, Wavefront OBJ
• NURBS surfaces as STEP
• shaded view as bitmap