Copyright: DesignWave Help                                                            Copyright © 1997 Computervision Corp.                                Monday, October 13, 1997 16:17:26
Citation: DesignWave Help, Copyright © 1997 Computervision Corp.


DesignWave Help

Finding Help

For contents, an index, and keyword searches, press this button.

Context-Sensitive Help

See Using Context-Sensitive Help for how to get context-senstive help on commands, messages, and dialog windows.


This file holds glossary terms which are used in popups.

Topics in this file should not contain jumps, but they can contain further popups for related terms.

Only the first instance of a related term should be shown as a popup.

The term being defined should be shown bold for every instance in its text.

Formatting of text in popup windows can produce errors if sentence full stops are followed by two spaces. So they must be followed by a single space in this file. These errors do not occur in main windows.


An object is said to be associative if it updates automatically whenever other objects on which it depends change. For example, dimensions in DesignWave are associative because they update automatically when the model is changed.


As you move the mouse pointer over objects displayed in a window, the objects light up to indicate that they are selectable. This behavior is known as pre-selection highlighting.


When selecting objects, if you press the left mouse button down and drag the cursor, a dynamic box appears. When you release the button, all objects entirely inside the box will be selected. This is known as box-selection.


Object is the generic term for an entity in DesignWave. Edges, faces, lines, and callouts are all examples of objects.


While you are creating or modifying an object by dragging the cursor, DesignWave gives you real-time or dynamic feedback to show what the object will look like if you release the mouse button.


Each tool you run places you in an interaction state that determines the behavior of the mouse and keys. This is known as the interface mode. You can be in a selection mode, such as selecting lines, selecting edges, selecting faces, or selecting annotations. Other modes include creating circles or trimming line segments.


Moving the cursor with the left mouse button held down is also known as dragging.


A CAD system is said to be parametric if the models you create with it are driven by numeric parameters. You can change the parameters and the CAD system can update the model automatically. DesignWave is a parametric since you can edit feature properties and update the design afterwards.


You create and detail solid models in DesignWave by creating features. Each feature adds more shape to the model. The feature properties can be edited later to change the model.


Unlike “wire-frame models”, which contain only 3D lines, and “surface models”, which contain unconnected 3D surfaces, solid models contain a complete and unambiguous representation of a rigid physical shape. A solid model describes faces and edges, and knows how they are connected together to define solid volumes.


An edge is the boundary between two adjacent faces in a solid model.


 A face is an area of the surface of a part whose form is defined by an underlying 3D surface. Faces meet at edges to form solids as if they were sewn together like a 3D patchwork.


Lines are created in sketches which belong to workplanes. Lines are used for many things, such as to create profiles for features, to draw section cuts to define section views, and to create drawing frames.


Annotations are objects which represent explanatory information and are created in the context of a drawing. Examples of annotations include dimensions, callouts, leaders and cross hatching.


 A sketch is a collection of lines which has a name. Sketches belong to workplanes.


As you create lines, they are added to the active sketch. Only one sketch can be active.


 A workplane is a plane in 3D space that you can create and name. A workplane can contain any number of sketches.


The active workplane is the workplane parent of the active sketch.


 A profile is a planar cross section that you create as input to many types of feature. A profile is defined by a sketch. The lines in the sketch must form closed loops with no intersections. There can be inner loops, or “holes”, but there must be no further loops within them.


 A mating condition is a relationship between two components in an assembly. Examples of mating conditions are Align Planes, Mate Planes, Center Axes and Orient Axes.


 A callout is a piece of textual information shown on a drawing. A dimension callout shows the value of a dimension. A note callout displays a note. A tolerance callout shows a feature control frame for a geometric tolerance. By using copy and paste, you can create more than one callout for the same piece of information.


 A callout group is a set of callouts, formatted into rows. Whenever you see a single callout, it actually belongs to a callout group consisting of just one callout. You can insert, delete and move callouts within a callout group.


 A leader is the annotation that consists of a line or series of lines connecting a callout group to a termination point. The termination point can be attached to a feature or it can be free standing in the drawing.


 A drawing feature is something that can be dimensioned to and includes edges and faces in a model view as well as center lines and center points generated in the drawing.


Center lines are created as by-products of annotation objects, such as dimensions, or from objects created by the center line tools. Center lines are selectable as features.


Center points are created as by-products of annotation objects, such as dimensions to hole features, or from objects created by the center line tools. Center points are selectable as features.


Whenever you are invited to select points in the active workplane, existing points are pre-highlighted as black squares as you move the cursor over them. These are called attraction points. Large black squares indicate precise points: end-points, mid-points, intersection points, and centers of circles or arcs. Small black squares indicate a point on the line close to the cursor.


The work axes define a local 2D (x,y) coordinate system for the active workplane. All coordinates that are input and displayed are relative to the work axes.