How to Use Design Intent Recognition in BricsCAD
Quick answer: When you modify one face of a solid during direct modelling, BricsCAD can automatically recognize related faces and modify them too, keeping the model’s design intent and geometric validity intact. The classic example: change the radius of one hole among several identical ones, and every hole sharing that diameter updates to match automatically.
How Design Intent Recognition Works
Modifying a single face, with a push/pull operation or by changing a dimensional constraint’s value, would normally only affect that one face. With design intent recognition active, BricsCAD instead identifies other faces that share a geometric relationship with it and updates them in sync, so the model stays both internally consistent and true to its original design.
Beyond recognizing equal radii, BricsCAD automatically recognizes several other geometric relationships between a solid’s surfaces and preserves them through direct modelling operations.
The Ten Recognition Options
Set from the Design Intent toolbar, a pressed button means that option is active:
| Option | What it recognizes |
|---|---|
| Tangent surfaces | Planes, cylinders, and cones that are tangent to each other |
| Coincident planes | Planes occupying the same location |
| Parallel planes | Planes running parallel to each other |
| Perpendicular planes | Planes at right angles to each other |
| Cylinders perpendicular to planes | Cylindrical faces perpendicular to a plane |
| Coaxial surfaces | Cylinders and cones sharing the same axis |
| Surfaces of equal radius | Cylinders and spheres sharing the same radius |
| Vertices between 4 or more faces | Vertices shared across four or more faces |
| Edges between coincident faces | Edges formed where coincident faces meet |
| Switch off/on all | A master toggle for every option at once |
Setting Design Intent Recognition
Toggle individual options directly on the Design Intent toolbar, or edit the DMRECOGNIZE system variable in the Settings dialog to set them the same way.
The Options tool on the 3D Constraints toolbar sets Automatic 3D geometry constraints recognition, and adjusts the Design Intent toolbar’s button states to match; the two are kept in sync, changing one updates the other.
Explicit Constraints Take Priority
Any 3D Constraint you define explicitly yourself takes priority over an automatically recognized one when a solid model gets modified with direct modelling commands, giving you a way to override the automatic behaviour whenever you need finer control.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if I change the radius of one hole among several identical ones? With Surfaces of equal radius recognition active, every other hole sharing that same radius updates automatically to match, rather than only the one you directly modified.
Do the Design Intent toolbar and the 3D Constraints Options setting control the same thing? Yes, they’re kept in sync. Changing Automatic 3D geometry constraints recognition from the 3D Constraints toolbar’s Options tool updates the Design Intent toolbar’s button states to match, and vice versa.
If I manually add a 3D Constraint, does it override automatic recognition? Yes, explicitly defined constraints take priority over automatically recognized ones during direct modelling operations.
Can I turn off all design intent recognition at once instead of disabling each option individually? Yes, use the “switch off/on all” option on the Design Intent toolbar.