Up To Next Walkthrough

A step by step example of Up To Next: two plates with a gap between them, and a block that fills the gap without a single measurement. For everything the end condition can do, see Up To Next.

Before You Start

• Modeling comes with the Pro plans.
• The examples use inches. Use any unit you like, and type it after the number.

Make Two Plates

1. Open a sketch on the Top plane and draw a rectangle 4 in by 3 in with the Center Rectangle tool.
2. On the Features tab, click Extrude, set Depth to 1/2 in and click Extrude. This is the lower plate.
3. Click Sketch. In the Sketch on panel, type 2 in in the Offset box, then click Top (see Reference Planes). The sketch opens on a plane 2 in above the first plate. Draw the same rectangle.
4. Click Extrude, set Depth to 1/2 in, untick Merge result and click Extrude. This is the upper plate, its own body.
5. The Model tree lists two bodies, with a gap of 1 1/2 in between them.

Fill the Gap

1. Open a sketch on the top face of the lower plate. Draw a rectangle 2 in by 1 in inside the plate.
2. Click Extrude.
3. In End condition, choose Up To Next. The Depth box is gone, and Both ways is greyed out.
4. Leave Merge result ticked and click Extrude.
5. The block grows from the lower plate and stops on the underside of the upper plate. The two plates are now one body.
6. In the Model tree, the step reads up to next.

When Nothing Is in the Way

1. Open another sketch on the top face of the lower plate and draw a rectangle that sticks out past the edge of the upper plate, so part of it has nothing above it.
2. Click Extrude and choose Up To Next, then click Extrude.
3. The feature is refused: Up To Next: part of the profile has no face to stop at in this direction. Choose Backward, change the profile, or pick a face with Up To Surface. Nothing is added.
4. Move the rectangle so it is all under the upper plate, and try again.

Read the Step

1. In the Model tree, find the new step. It reads up to next.
2. Its depth is the distance the engine measured, 1 1/2 in. You never typed it.

Options

• End condition: Up To Next.
• Direction: Forward or Backward.
• Merge result: joined or separate.

Tips and What to Expect

• The step stores no depth of its own. Each rebuild finds the first face again.
• Cut works the same way, and only stops on the bodies it works on.

Related Tools

• Up To Next
• Up To Surface
• Extrude and Cut