SOLIDWORKS Delete Face Command Can Modify, Clean up and Improve Your Geometry

In SOLIDWORKS, you can think of the Delete Face command as a big eraser – just like those big pink ones you used in grade school. When you have geometry that you’d like to modify, cleanup or improve, think of Delete Face. It’s almost as easy as rubbing that big pink eraser on the screen.

Modify

When working with imported geometry (i.e. no feature tree available), you may want to remove geometry like holes or fillets, so you can create new holes or return the model back to sharp corners.

Simply hold down Ctrl and select all the holes you want to remove, right-click on one of the selected surfaces and choose Faces > Delete. (Look in expanded menu if you don’t see it initially)

Select the ‘Delete and Patch’ option

There you go – the holes are deleted and the surfaces closed up.

Use the same workflow and delete the filleted faces to get back to square corners.

Clean up

In the process of creating and modifying geometry, you may end up with small tabs left over – from a split command, for example. Or perhaps this is another imported geometry and a sliver of material has been left behind.

Cleaning this up with Delete Face is easy. Right-click on the face highlighted, choose Faces > Delete and use the ‘Delete and Patch’ option.

Small tab has been deleted.

Improve

At times the geometry you end up with may not suit your needs. For example, you may want to improve the surface that was generated on the corners of the model shown below. Multiple faces are not needed – we want to have a continuous face.

Select the small faces on the corner and the adjoining faces, then Right-click on one of the highlighted faces, choose Faces > Delete and use the ‘Delete and Fill’ option. Also check the ‘Tangent Fill’ option to get a smooth transition between surfaces.

Corners now have one continuous face instead of multiple faces to create the surface.

Hopefully this give you some ideas for how to better use Delete Face. It’s a powerful little eraser!

For more on how to use Delete Face, check out another recent CATI blog on the subject: SOLIDWORKS – Creating Internal Volume – Delete Face Command.

Chris Snider
Field Technical Services Manager
Computer Aided Technology, Inc