Key Enhancements to the Move Face Command

We all know that when working with a native SOLIDWORKS model, design changes can be easily made by editing the individual features. But what if you’re working with imported 3D geometry such as Parasolid, STEP, or IGES files that are missing the SOLIDWORKS feature information in the model?

If you’ve never used the Move Face feature before, you’re missing out. With the move face feature you can offset, translate, and rotate faces on solid and surface models to quickly and easily make changes to the geometry. For those of you that are already familiar with the Move Face command, here are a few great enhancements to the tool that you might not have noticed.

One of these enhancements is support for multibody parts. We now have the ability to translate faces of different bodies in the same operation. This is a huge time saver since it was required to do each of those bodies individually in previous versions. In this example, we’re modifying the length of each of the grates to increase the depth of the grill.

You’ll also find that once you drag the Triad to translate the face/s, you have the option to key in an exact value using the on-screen numeric input. Of course you can still type in a value in the Property Manager if that’s the workflow you’re used to, but this new addition is a nice time saving feature.

Another great enhancement is the addition of some options for depth control of the translated faces. This is great as it’s an option we’re already familiar with and are most likely already using when creating extruded features with End Conditions such as Up to Vertex, Up to Surface, Offset from Surface, and Up to Body.

Hopefully you find these enhancements to the Move Face command as useful as I do. And if you’re not already using this tool to make quick changes to imported geometry, I highly recommend giving it a try as it can save you a significant amount of time! You can find a video demonstration of this functionality, along with other useful tips, on our YouTube channel. Thank you for reading!