Soft Selection permet de contrôler facilement les mouvements dans 3DEXPERIENCE xShape

The new R2023x update to 3DEXPERIENCE Works has seen many changes to existing roles and even some new roles added to the platform. One of the changes has created a new command for users of the 3D Sculptor Role xShape App, the browser-based subdivision modeling tool for the digital sculpting of complex parts. This command allows for the creation of soft selections, and if you’ve never heard that term, you likely have some questions.

What are soft selections?

A soft selection in 3DEXPERIENCE creates a sphere of influence of selected vertices, edges, or faces. You can think of this almost as a “partial selection” of other points around. This partial selection can be changed according to an input of subdivision faces or a radius from the selection. In our age of social media, you can think of our main point/edge/face as one we select to be an influencer, and we can choose how many followers they have in the model.

Why would I use the soft selections command?

The main reason to use this is better control of your movement of selections. Larger selections allow for rapid movement of large portions of the mesh with an evenly distributed displacement. Making a smaller selection can allow for local changes that can keep the rest of the mesh unchanged. The major benefit here is that what may have taken several commands or movements now can be done in a single command and selection.

Where is it located and how do I use it?

The soft selection command is located next to the symmetry command under the subdivision tab in xShape.

xShape menu Subdivision tab

Simply clicking the command will make your next selection a soft selection in 3DEXPERIENCE. The menu that appears will then allow you to set your parameters to create the scope of your changes.

Soft Selection tool menu

Soft Selection Falloff Options

The mode requires a selection of by face count or by radial distance. This can be adjusted through direct numeric input in either case. The falloff has three possible selections:

1. Linear
2. Smooth
3. Concave

This basically provides the gradient in which points positions are altered. To demonstrate this, I pulled out a face of a quadball 2-inches. The difference between the linear and smooth options is quite subtle in this case, but the change from those to concave is quite radical.

Are there more changes to xShape in R2023x?

There are several other great enhancements to xShape to improve your workflow and give you more tools to sculpt with! When you open xShape, simply click what’s new to be directed to the wiki of changes. If you want to catch up with even more of what’s new in 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS, check out our webinar series that goes through all the latest enhancements to 3DEXPERIENCE works and SOLIDWORKS 2023.