Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Chapter 8 Creating and Working with Solid Model Features 199 Slicing a Solid Slicing a Solid A 3D solid can be sliced at any location by using existing objects such as circles, arcs, ellipses, 2D polylines, 2D splines, or surfaces. Why slice a solid? To create complex, angular, contoured, or organic shapes that traditionally cannot be created by just using solids. Good modeling techniques incorporate slicing of solids. For example, think of a computer mouse. This would be diffi cult to create with solids. But, you can create a basic solid shape, then slice the solid using contoured surfaces as slicing tools. After slicing the solid, you can choose to retain either or both sides of the model. The slices can then be used for model construction or display and presentation purposes. The SLICE command is used to slice solids. When the command is initiated, you are asked to select the solids to be sliced. Select the objects and press [Enter]. Next, you must defi ne the slicing path. The default method of defi ning a path requires you to specify two points on a slicing plane. The plane passes through the two points and is perpendicular to the XY plane of the current UCS. Refer to Figure 8-24 as you follow this sequence: 1. Select the command and pick the object to be sliced. 2. Pick the start point of the slicing plane. See Figure 8-24A. 3. Pick the second point on the slicing plane. 4. You are prompted to specify a point on the desired side to keep. Select anywhere on the back half of the object. The point does not have to be on the object. It must simply be on the side of the cutting plane that you want to keep. 5. The object is sliced and the front half is deleted. See Figure 8-24B. When prompted to select the side to keep, you can press [Enter] to keep both sides. If both sides are retained, two separate 3D solids are created. Each solid can then be used for additional modeling purposes. There are several additional options for specifying a slicing path. These options are listed here and described in the following sections. • Planar object • Surface • Zaxis • View • XY • YZ • ZX • 3points SLICE Ribbon Solid Solid Editing Slice Type SLICE A B Figure 8-23. A—Two polylines with thickness that will be converted into solids. B—The resulting solids.