Parting Line with Step Draft

A step draft is a variation of a parting line draft. The step draft creates one face rotated about the plane used as the Direction of Pull. This results in small faces, representing the steps (highlighted in blue in the example below).

Model with parting line
Parting line draft Parting line with step draft
You can check the draft angles on your model using the draft analysis tool. Draft analysis creates a color-coded rendition of the model faces based on the angle and the direction of pull criteria that you specify.

To insert a draft angle using parting line with step draft:

  1. Sketch the part to be drafted.
  2. Create a plane.
  3. Create the desired parting line. Make sure that:
    • At least one parting line segment is coincident to the parting plane on each draft face.
    • All other parting line segments are in the pull direction of the plane.
    • None of the parting line segments are perpendicular to the plane.
  4. Insert a split line curve.
  5. Click Draft on the Features toolbar or click Insert > Features > Draft.
  6. Under Type of draft, select Step Draft.
    • Select Tapered steps if you want the surfaces to generate in the same manner as the tapered surfaces.
    • Select Perpendicular steps if you want the surfaces perpendicular to the original main face.
  7. Under Draft Angle , enter the number of degrees.
  8. Under Direction of Pull:
    • Select a plane to indicate the direction of the pull.
    • Select Reverse direction to slant the draft in the opposite direction.
  9. Under Parting Lines partingline.png:
    1. Select the parting line segments in the graphics area. Note the direction of the preview arrow.
    2. Click Other Face to specify a different draft direction for each segment of the parting line.
    3. Select a type in Face propagation:
      None Draft only the selected face.
      Along Tangent Extend the draft to all faces that are tangent to the selected face (faces that meet with fillets or rounds.)


  10. Click OK PM_OK.gif.