Learn/Drafting/Solid Modeling Tools
Draft
Updated v2.3.9At a glance
- Taper faces about a neutral plane — mold and casting draft, or any angled wall
- One angle for every face, or a different angle per face
- Neutral plane is any flat face or construction plane; the section there keeps its size
- Optional pull-direction override and a reverse toggle
- Live preview; fully parametric — reopen from history to change it
Draft tilts selected faces by an angle so a part can lift cleanly out of a mold — and it's just as
useful for tapered pockets, ribs, and any wall that shouldn't be dead vertical. Start it from the
toolbar, the search palette, or right-click a body. Every draft commits as a real feature in the
history (Draft 1, Draft 2, …), so you can reopen it later to add faces, change angles, or
re-pick the neutral plane, and it rebuilds like any other feature.
Pick faces, pick a neutral plane
Click the faces you want to taper — they accumulate, and each shows a small health dot so you know its reference is holding. Then pick the neutral plane: any flat face on the part or a construction plane. The neutral plane is where the cross-section keeps its exact dimensions; above or below it, the faces lean in or out by the draft angle. All the faces in one Draft must belong to the same body.
One angle, or per-face
Choose One angle (all faces) to draft every picked face to the same value — dial it once, done. Switch to Per-face angle and each face gets its own field, so a part that needs 2° on one wall and 5° on another is a single feature. Switching modes keeps your values sensible: going per-face seeds each face from the shared angle so nothing jumps, and going back to one angle snaps them all to a single value.
Pull direction and reverse
By default the taper is measured from the neutral plane's normal — the direction the part pulls out of the mold. Tick Reverse pull direction to flip which way the faces lean. For a part that opens at an angle, click Pick pull direction and choose a straight edge or a face to set the pull direction yourself.
Parametric and editable
The taper updates live as you dial the angle. Draft remembers its faces and neutral plane, so if the neutral plane is attached to a face that later moves, the draft follows it. Reopen the feature from the history to add or remove faces, change any angle, flip the reverse toggle, or re-pick the neutral plane.