You can create solids such as sphere, cylinders, and cones by revolving faces or closed sketches with the Revolve tool. Not only that, but you can also create helical objects by adding height to your revolved sketch or face.
To create a simple body with the tool, follow these steps:
- Draw a closed sketch that you want to revolve. This should look like a cross-section view of the 3D body, cut in half.
- Switch to 3D view.
- Go to Tools > Revolve.
- Select the filling of the closed sketch.
- Select the axis to revolve around.
The filling is immediately revolved 360 degrees around the axis.
You can adjust the angle of revolution by selecting the dimension label and specifying on the numpad.
- Select Done.
💡Shortcut💡: If you first select the filling you want to revolve, the menu is customized automatically. From this adaptive menu, go to Menu > More > Revolve. When you’re done revolving the filling, select Done to close the tool.
Helical body
To create a helical body like a screw, follow these steps:
- Draw a sketch that will become the profile of the revolving body.
- Select the sketch filling in 3D view and then go to More > Revolve.
Optionally, go to Menu > Tools > Revolve and then select the sketch filling. - Select the axis of revolution.
The filling is automatically revolved 360 degrees, and its height is 0.
- Adjust the height by pulling the arrows or defining a specific value in the dimension label’s numpad.
Depending on how tall you want your screw to be, adjust the height. If you increase the angle, that means you’re adding more revolutions to your screw in the given height.