- [Instructor] Here I want to talk
about what a surface actually is.
A surface is a zero-thickness shape.
Surfaces help us create complex
or even relatively simple shapes
that a solid model would have a difficult time
constraining and creating.
We use surfaces to help define
these complex shapes like the exterior of a car,
an exterior of a aircraft
or various products that you may have in your house
that are non-prismatic.
Prismatic shapes as we know are cubes,
spheres, cylinders and with a surface
we can create shapes
that go beyond these basic simple shapes.
As we go through CATIA,
we're going to see that we can create pretty much any shape
that you can imagine
and certain things beyond what we can even create
in the real world.
So, as we define our surfaces,
we have to make sure that we don't create something
that can't really truly be made.
And one of the things that we really need
to pay attention to
is how our surfaces are formed.
Because they are extremely powerful these surfacing tools,
we have the capability of creating things
that in the real world we can only imagine
but not actually truly build, create or manufacture.
Now, as you can see here on screen,
I have what would be a relatively simple surface
that defines what would be a sheet metal part.
Upon completion, this sheet metal part
would eventually be thickened
and because it started out as a surface
and thickened to provide the appropriate thickness
as a solid, the edges, the way the features
are basically offset would be very true to form
in the real world and that's why as we create our surfaces,
as we create these complex shapes,
we have to be very cautious
that we don't create something that again,
as I mentioned, cannot be manufactured.