Learn/Drafting/Solid Modeling Tools
Boolean Operations
Updated v2.3.9At a glance
- Combine: fuse two bodies into one (union)
- Cut: subtract one body from another (difference)
- Intersect: keep only the overlapping (common) volume of two bodies
- Available inline on every profile tool — no separate step required
- Shift+U / Shift+S / Shift+I shortcuts — rebindable
- Loose pieces auto-split into separate bodies — discard the waste
- Keep tool body option — keep the cutter instead of consuming it
- Multi-body components: keep independent solids in the same file
Boolean operations combine solid bodies, and JetCad3 exposes them two ways: inline on every profile tool, and as standalone Combine, Cut, and Intersect tools for bodies that already exist. Both paths write an ordinary feature into the history, so a boolean stays as editable as anything else.
Inline: Cut / Join / New Body
Extrude, Revolve, Sweep, Helix, and Pipe all watch their preview — the moment it intersects an existing body, an Operation dropdown appears with Cut (subtract), Join (fuse), and New Body (keep independent). JetCad3 pre-selects the likely intent (a profile pushed clean through a plate reads as a through-hole and defaults to Cut) and remembers your last choice per tool. Most day-to-day boolean work happens right here without a separate step.
Standalone: Combine, Cut, and Intersect
For two bodies that already exist, Combine fuses them into one, Cut subtracts a tool body from an operation body, and Intersect keeps only the volume the two bodies share (everything outside the overlap is discarded). All three have keyboard shortcuts — Shift+U for Combine, Shift+S for Cut, and Shift+I for Intersect — rebindable in Settings → Keyboard. Pick the operation body and the picker chains straight into picking the tool body; a live preview shows the result before OK. The tool body is consumed by the feature — it leaves the browser panel, and editing the feature brings it back for re-picking. Both bodies must live in the same component. If you Intersect two bodies that don't actually overlap, the tool says so and leaves both bodies untouched rather than producing an empty part.
Keep tool body
By default the tool body is consumed. Tick Keep tool body in the dialog to keep it as its own body instead — handy when the same tool cuts several parts, or you want the cutter left in place for reference. The cut still subtracts the tool's shape; only the tool's own body survives.
When a cut leaves a loose piece
A body is always one connected piece. Some cuts legitimately produce two pieces that don't touch — the classic case is a pipe cope, where cutting one pipe with another leaves the coped pipe plus a loose saddle-shaped waste lump. Instead of welding those into one body you can't take apart, JetCad3 hands you each piece as its own body, and a brief note tells you it happened.
That makes the waste easy to deal with: delete the loose scrap and it's gone — from the model and from the exported cut file — while the part you care about stays exactly where it is. The two pieces share one boolean in the history, so deleting the scrap discards just that piece rather than undoing the whole cut. Prefer to keep it around? Hide it with the eye toggle instead. This applies to every solid operation, so a Combine of two parts that don't overlap also gives you two clean bodies rather than one disconnected blob.
The 2D sketch editor has its own boolean story — Cut / Join / Intersect between closed profiles, plus the Bridge tool for welding or slotting contours — covered in Sketch Boolean & Bridge. For heavy vector-editing workflows, the Design workspace has the full vector boolean toolset.
Multi-body components
New Body is what makes multi-body design work: one component can hold any number of independent solids — a weldment's tubes, a fixture and its clamp — each listed in the browser panel with its own visibility and export. Combine them at the end, or never.