Matrix 5 PRIMARY TUTORIALS
Explode, Fillet, & Offset: Page 1
Explode, Fillet, & Offset Tips for using Fillet:
Practice the Explode, Fillet, Offset, & Join commands by re-
creating the shape in the Demo file. Fillet creates small 9 You can adjust the radius of the curve that Fillet
curves in order to smooth sharp edges between curves and creates to make a more subtle, or a more dramatic, curve.
Join adds these curves to the remainder of the shape. Offset After clicking on the Fillet tool, the command line will
places another copy of the same curve outside or inside itself. prompt you to “Select First Curve to Fillet”. By typing in a
number and pressing Enter, you will be indicating the
Primary-Level Skills radius of the curve, in millimeters, that Fillet will create.
The default is 0.5. Try typing in “1.0” and “0.25” to see the
difference.
Fillet Explode 9 Remember to select all of your curves and click on
Offset Join Join to make them into one closed curve after
running Fillet.
1 Go to the File menu. Click on Open and find 9 If for some reason you would need to “un-join” your
DGMatrix53. Double click on Demos. Double curves to identify or adjust their component parts, you can
click on Curves. Double click on Explode,
Fillet and Offset. select the shape and click on Explode. This will
reverse the Join command so that you can see the way the
curves looked before you joined them together.
Tips for using Offset:
9 If you wish to, you can adjust the distance between
the original curve and the offset curve. When you first click
the Offset tool, you will be prompted in the Command line
to “Select Curve to Offset”. When you click on the curve
you want to offset, the prompt will change to “Through
Point”. Notice that, in the parentheses next to “Through
Point”, the word “Distance” has a number beside it. The
default distance from the original curve to the new curve is
0.5 mm. Notice that the white line you currently see
stretching from the curve to your cursor has a dot on it that
2 Simply follow the steps to create what is is 0.5 mm away from the original curve, indicating where
the new curve will appear. To adjust this distance, simply
shown. Make sure your End type a number indicating the desired distance (in
O-Snap is on so that the resulting shape will be millimeters) and press the Enter key. Now, click your left
a Closed Curve. mouse button close to the original curve and the new
curve will appear.
3 Fillet and Offset are both found on
9 Remember that, when using Offset, it’s very important
the Curve fly-out menu. to select the proper curve. In most cases (not all) you will
want to select the outside curve.
9 You can either Offset curves to the outside or to the
inside of the original curve simply by moving your mouse to
the outside or to the inside (the white line with the dot on it
will follow) of the original curve after you have selected it.
