Replace face

Hands a surface back to the body: the picked faces are removed, the surface takes their place, and the body is whole again.

The same round trip: the face is taken off as a copy, reshaped on its own and handed back.
The same round trip: the face is taken off as a copy, reshaped on its own and handed back.

Why

This is the far end of the bridge into the design layer. The loop is: take a face out ("Copy face"), reshape the surface on its own, hand it back. The node lives in the timeline, not as a layer on top of the model, so anything can be built below it: fillets, holes, a shell.

How

  1. Press Replace face.
  2. Click the body faces you are replacing.
  3. Click the surface — it is a separate sheet body, hard to confuse with anything.
  4. Enter to apply, Esc to cancel.

Worth knowing

  • One face can be replaced by a sheet standing off it. The neighbouring faces reach the sheet: the top of a block replaced by an offset sheet lifted 5 makes the block 5 taller, a sheet sunk 3 makes it 3 lower. The sheet must cover the face whole.
  • Several faces — only along their edges. The surface stands on the edges of the faces replaced. A common mistake: the top of a shelled part is a RING as wide as the wall, while the patch is stretched across the whole opening. The ring and the lid are bounded differently, the inner loop is left unpaired — and the node turns red. Build the patch on the same edges that bound the face being replaced.
  • Capping an open box is a different job. A shelled part is already closed: the top is a recess in the material, not a hole in the surface. A lid there adds material — that is an extrude or a thicken, not a face replacement.
  • The surface must close the opening. If a gap is left after the faces are removed, the node turns red and says how many edges are left unpaired, and the part stays as it was.
  • Faces are stored as a description. Say "all faces of this feature" and the node keeps replacing exactly those after the base changes, not yesterday's numbers.
  • Both inputs are absorbed. One part is left on screen, not a part plus a surface over it.
  • The faces are gone after an edit of the base — the node turns red with the reason; pick the faces again by a double click on the row.
Patch →