It’s a Wrap—Another Overlooked but Useful SOLIDWORKS Tool

Here’s how to wrap flat shapes or text onto curved surfaces.

The SOLIDWORKS Wrap tool lets you create artwork, text, and geometry on virtually any surface of your model. This tutorial will show you how to use this powerful tool in a few different situations.

The Wrap tool icon is found in the feature toolbar.

The simplest way to use the Wrap tool is as a replacement for both the Boss Extrude and Cut Extrude tools. Let’s take a look at a sample part that is a simple rectangle with a circular post on it.

A very simple part made with the Wrap tool.

Let’s make a reference sketch on the face we want to use the Wrap tool on. For this first example, we will just make a simple circle in our sketch.

Reference sketch for the post we will make with the Wrap tool.

Now let’s exit the sketch. We are now ready to use the Wrap tool. Select the sketch you just made in the feature tree, and then select the Wrap tool. This can be found in the Features toolbar or by clicking Insert > Features > Wrap. Once the tool is opened, you will see a screen like this one:

The Wrap PropertyManager, where the feature parameters are set.

This is the PropertyManager for the Wrap tool. Let’s go through the options for this first simple example. 

Wrap Type: Emboss, Deboss, or Scribe.

The first option we see in the PropertyManger is the Wrap Type selection. Here we have three options. From left to right, there is Emboss, Deboss, and Scribe. Emboss will create a raised feature on the selected face, Deboss will imprint or cut the feature into the face, and Scribe will imprint the sketch onto the face without raising or lowering it. Let’s choose Emboss for this first example. 

We will leave the next option, Wrap Method, alone and save it for a later example. Let’s move on to Wrap Parameters.

Wrap Parameters: Source Sketch, Face for Wrap, and Thickness.

Our selected sketch should automatically appear in the Source Sketch field. In the second Face for Wrap field, we will select the face we want our sketch to be wrapped on. Select this field, and then click the top face of the rectangle in the graphics window.

The selected Face for Wrap.

Define the Emboss distance in the third Thickness field, then click the green checkmark. Here is the result:

The intended results from using the Wrap tool.

As stated before, the Wrap tool on a flat surface face acts like a Boss Extrude or Cut Extrude. By default, the wrap will normally cut or extrude the sketch based on the selected face, but this can be changed by selecting a different face in the Pull Direction field.

Let’s move on to a new model of a cylinder. Say we want to cut a design into the curved face of a 5-inch diameter cylinder, like this:

A complex design cut into a cylinder.

This cannot be accomplished easily using the Cut Extrude feature, so let’s try the Wrap tool. First we need to create a plane tangent to the edge of the base cylinder. You can use the Reference Geometry feature to add this plane.

A tangent plane was added using the Reference Geometry feature.

Let’s make the sketch of the design we want on the cylinder. Keep in mind that the design will follow the circumference of the cylinder, or “wrap” around it. So, because the base cylinder is 5 inches in diameter, the overall length of the sketch should be 5 times π, which is the circumference of the cylinder, or 15.708 inches.  The sketch will look like this:

The sketch that will create our complex cut feature.

Once the sketch is defined, exit out of it and activate the Wrap tool again. Make sure the Wrap Type is set to Deboss and select the face of the cylinder.

The required selections in the FeatureManager.

Once the parameters are set and the preview looks good, press the green checkmark and you will see the final product.

The best thing about the Wrap tool is the ability to wrap a sketch on multiple surfaces. Let’s look at a third example part, one with an irregular, multi-face surface.

A curved, multi-face surface with text on it.

In this example, we are also going to highlight a very useful way to use the Wrap tool, which is adding text to a solid body. Let’s create our sketch for this wrap feature using the Text sketch feature to add the words to the surface. Remember that the sketch plane must be created normally to the target faces of the wrap.

The lettering on a sketch plane is normal to our target surface.

Here is where the Wrap method option comes in—after you activate the Wrap tool again. There are two options, Analytical on the right, and Spline Surface on the left.

Analytical and Spline surface wrap methods.

The Analytical method, which works with planar or non-planar faces, is what we’ve been using thus far. The Spline Surface method is used to wrap a sketch on any surface type, as well as on multiple faces. Let’s select the Spline Surface method for this example. Don’t forget to select Emboss, as well as the faces to wrap the sketch on.

The required selection in the FeatureManager for this part. 

The Spline Surface method is an extremely powerful way to create geometry on complex surfaces when other methods fail.

We have gone through three examples of how to use the powerful Wrap tool. Now, it’s time to get creative and implement this tool into your designs.