Chamfer

Chamfer cuts the edges you pick flat, leaving a 45 degree face where the edge was. On a 2D path it cuts the corners off instead.

reshape_chamfer

Chamfer and Fillet are the same tool with two different profiles – Chamfer leaves a flat cut, Fillet leaves an arc. Picking edges, the one size a whole feature is cut at, and the messages the panel shows work identically in both, and are described in full on the Fillet page.

How to Use

  1. Select a part, or a 2D path
  2. Click Chamfer in the Reshape group of the toolbar
  3. Click an edge (or, on a path, a corner) in the 3D view to add it
  4. Set Distance in the Properties panel

Nothing is cut until you pick something. A fresh Chamfer on a solid is the part unchanged, waiting for a click.

One Chamfer, one distance. Every edge a Chamfer selects is cut back by the same amount. If part of your shape needs a different distance, apply a second Chamfer on top of the first and pick those edges there.

Picking Edges

Hover the part and the edge under the cursor lights up white; click to add it, click it again to remove it. One click can mean several things – the edge alone, the loop it belongs to, or that loop read more coarsely so it does not stop at the facets of a curved wall. A small badge beside the hovered edge names the reading on offer – “1 edge”, “40 edges, chain” – with an arrow each side for the reading next door. The arrows only show you a reading; a normal click commits it.

Every committed selection becomes a row in the Edges list with its own accent colour, a button that lights it up in the 3D view, a remove button, and a reading dropdown offering that pick’s other readings. Choosing one of them replaces that group in its own slot rather than adding a second, and can be undone. There is no segment count anywhere on a Chamfer: a flat cut is one straight step across, and a second step would only put a point on a line.

On a 2D path the panel shows Corners and Corner Threshold instead. Small balls appear at each corner; click one to cut it, click it again to leave it sharp. With no corners selected every corner is cut, which is what a new Chamfer on a path starts out doing.

Parameters

  • Distance - How far back from the edge the cut starts, measured along each of the two faces the edge joins. Every edge this Chamfer selects is cut back by it; for a second distance, apply a second Chamfer
  • Edges - The list of selections on a solid
  • Corners - The same list for a 2D path. Empty means every corner
  • Corner Threshold - 2D only. How far a corner has to bend from straight before it counts as a corner at all

On a 2D path the distance is the setback along each edge from the corner, not a radius. That is deliberate: one radius applied to corners of different angles would set each of them back by a different amount, which is not what the number you typed into Distance means.

When It Refuses

A chamfer that does not fit is skipped with a warning triangle on its row and a sentence saying why – MatterCAD never quietly shrinks a size you typed. The messages that can are worded to tell you what would have fitted:

A size of 5 reaches further across the face at (10, 0, 20) than the face is wide. The most that fits there is about 3.2.

Type that number or less. Everything on the Fillet page under “When It Refuses” – the other refusals, the inside-out advisory and the silent weld of unwelded imports – applies to Chamfer word for word.

Tips

  • A chamfer is the cheaper edge break: it adds two triangles per edge where a fillet adds a whole arc’s worth
  • On a part you plan to 3D print, a chamfer on the bottom edge is often easier to print cleanly than a fillet of the same size
  • Distance is measured along the faces, not across the cut. A 2 mm chamfer takes 2 mm off each face and leaves a cut face about 2.8 mm wide
  • Chamfer and Fillet can be stacked: chamfer one set of edges, then fillet the result’s new edges
  • If every outside edge should be broken at one size and you do not care whether it is round, Round All Edges needs no picking
  • Fillet - The same tool with a round instead of a flat cut, and the full description of edge picking
  • Round All Edges - Round every outside edge at one radius, with nothing to pick
  • Plane Cut - Cut a whole part flat rather than one edge
  • Repair - Fix an imported mesh before beveling it