Modeling Workbench
Id: modeling · The default workbench
Modeling is general solid modeling: sketches, primitives, the profile-driven solids, booleans, and the face-level edit tools. It is what a fresh session starts in, and what any unknown or stale workbench id falls back to.
It offers everything except the sheet-metal features (SM.*) and Assembly Component
(ACOMP), so a newly added feature lands here automatically.
A new part starts with a Datium (D1) as its first History feature, providing
D1:XY, D1:XZ and D1:YZ reference planes for sketches. It creates no solid.
You can edit, delete, undo or redo it like any other feature. Opening an existing
file preserves its history. New assembly, drawing, wire-harness and eCAD documents
start without a datum.
When to switch to it
- Default. Any single-body or multi-body part that is not specifically a folded sheet part or an assembly of placed components.
- Also the right place to edit a sheet-metal or assembly document you did not author: the History panel shows and edits every feature regardless of workbench. You only need to leave Modeling when you want to create a sheet-metal or assembly feature.
Panels and buttons
Modeling claims no panels, so it shows only the unclaimed ones: 3D View, History, Scene, Expressions, and Qualify while the part declares connection points. Every claimed panel is hidden — see the panel matrix.
It declares no toolbar buttons; its row holds only the shared sketch tools, while a sketch is being edited.
Features (35)
Building blocks
| Feature | Code | |
|---|---|---|
| Datium | D | A reference triad of orthogonal XY / XZ / YZ planes, registered as named frames |
| Plane | P | One named construction plane (origin + normal) |
| Sketch | S | 2D profile geometry on a plane or face |
Primitives
| Feature | Code |
|---|---|
| Primitive Cube | P.CU |
| Primitive Cylinder | P.CY |
| Primitive Cone | P.CO |
| Primitive Sphere | P.S |
| Primitive Torus | P.T |
| Primitive Pyramid | P.PY |
| NURBS Solid | NS |
Curves and helpers
| Feature | Code | |
|---|---|---|
| Spline | SP | Registers a named path and named anchor points other features can consume |
| Helix | HX | A single-edge helical curve: a named path, end points and an axis line, drawn as a sketch-like object |
| Waypoint | WP | A harness routing waypoint splines attach their anchors to — a pass-through, never a wire's end: the routing record, a base point, an axis, a frame and a drawn line |
Profile-driven solids
| Feature | Code | |
|---|---|---|
| Extrude | E | Push a profile along its normal |
| Revolve | R | Spin a profile about an axis |
| Sweep | SW | Sweep a profile along a path: slid along straight segments (translate, the default), or carried round curves (pathAlign) |
| Path Sweep | SWP | Sweep along a path curve, with optional twist |
| Loft | LOFT | Blend between profiles |
| Rib | RIB | Thicken an open polyline into a stiffening web |
| Tube | TU | A tubular solid along connected path edges, optionally hollow |
| Thicken | THK | Turn open faces into closed solids by offsetting along their normals |
Edit and repair
| Feature | Code | |
|---|---|---|
| Boolean | B | Union / subtract / intersect |
| Fillet | F | Round edges |
| Chamfer | CH | Bevel edges |
| Hole | H | Drilled holes from sketch points — countersink, counterbore, or a symbolic threaded style |
| Offset Shell | O.S | Shell a solid, leaving the selected faces open |
| Offset Face | O.F | Descriptor/reference validation only — produces no geometry today |
| Push Face | PF | Offset faces along their normal and re-heal the neighbours |
| Transform Face | TF | Move and turn faces with the transform gizmo, keeping their shape, and re-heal the neighbours |
| Delete Face | DF | Remove a transition face or a through hole's wall and heal the gap |
| Refit Faces | RFS | Replace faces that are really one surface (a mesh import's facets) with one plane, cylinder, cone, sphere or torus face |
| Split | SPL | Cut a body with a plane or an analytic surface |
Placement and replication
| Feature | Code |
|---|---|
| Transform | XFORM |
| Mirror | M |
| Pattern | PATTERN |
Import
| Feature | Code | |
|---|---|---|
| Import 3D Model | IMPORT3D | STEP / IGES (and reconstructed STL / 3MF / OBJ) as exact B-rep |
The seven sheet-metal features (Sheet Metal) and Assembly Component (Assembly) are absent only from the creation lists; existing ones stay fully editable here.