You can follow the easy steps of this example to see how to create a helical skin based on a given value for the pitch and on a given number of revolutions. Before starting, open sample file "HelixSurf.e3".
| 1 | Start the Helix Surface command. |
| 2 | Check that the Rotation drop-down list is set to Clockwise. If it isn't, set it to Clockwise. |
| 3 | In the Mode drop-down list, select Pitch and revolutions. |
| 4 | Select the Associative Mode check box, in order to obtain a unique skin (that is a unique open solid rather than a set of surfaces), with as many faces as the number of the helix revolutions. It will retain a link to the entities it derives from. A specific node displaying both the original entities and the resulting skin will be added to the Model Structure. |
| 5 | Select the curves to swept in order to create the helical surfaces and end selection by right-clicking and choosing Continue in the context menu. |
| 6 | Set the Axis drop-down list to
Line (see "How to define an axis or a line). Then select the line. The Pitch and Revolution boxes are displayed.  |
| 7 | In the Revolution box, type the number of turns for the final skin. Note that you can invert the direction of the axis and thus of the resulting skin by double-clicking the red arrow (as displayed by the Invert tooltip). |
| 8 | Expand the More Options node. In the
Endcap drop-down list, select
Both, so as to create both the initial and the final closure cap for the skin. |
| 9 | Check the Axis box in order to create a datum axis on the helix axis. |
| 10 | Click  or  to confirm your selections and create the skin. The Model Structure will display the icons of the skin (solid) and of the datum axis.  |