Designing Normalized Mitered Cuts on Rectangle Tube

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Normalizing tube cuts in your model may seem like a hassle, but it only takes a few tools! This guide will teach you the best method for normalizing mitered cuts on rectangle tubing.

If you are looking to normalize mitered cuts on round tubing, this method won't quite work. Review Designing Normalized Mitered Cuts on Round Tube to learn two great methods.

In this article, we’ll be referring to both rectangle and square tubing collectively as rectangle tubing (since a square is a rectangle). Don’t be mistaken, this method normalizes miters on both rectangle and square tube.

Also, it's crucial to make sure your rectangle tube model has corner radii. This guide assumes your model has coroner radii as it is industry standard for rectangle tubing to be manufactured with rounded corners.

This quick modeling method will reliably normalize miter cuts. It involves trimming away excess surfaces and thickening your tube from the outside in.

Start by clicking the Ruled Surface tool from the Surfaces tab. Before making selections, set the “Type” to “Normal to Surface”. This will make the ruled surface extrude normal to the surface of the selected edge.

Next, select the inside edge of your mitered cut. This selection will be recorded as your “Edge Selection” and a yellow preview of your ruled surface should appear.

Then, input any distance greater than the thickness of your tube so that the ruled surface extrudes past the outside surface of the tube. If your ruled surface is extruding inwards, click the “Reverse Direction” icon to change the direction.

Before you finish, make sure "Options" is set to "Trim and Knit" to make your ruled surface one continuous surface. This is important for future steps.

Finally, click OK.

Pro Tip: If the ruled surface is not extruding outward, select your edge from the “Edge Selection” and click “Alternate Face”. This will change the face the tool is referencing. 

Now that we have our ruled surface, click the Delete Face tool in the Surfaces tab. Before making selections, make sure “Options” is set to “Delete”. 

Next, select all faces of your tube EXCEPT for the outside face. Make sure to select the faces of your rounded corners, they can be easy to miss.

Click OK. You should be left with a continuous outside surface of the tube and your ruled surface.

To trim away the excess surface, click the Trim Surface tool in the Surfaces tab. Make sure the “Trim Type” is “Standard” and the “Selections” is set to “Keep Selections”.

Select the ruled surface as the “Trim Tool” and the tube surface as the “Pieces to Keep”. 

Click OK.

We no longer have need for our ruled surface. To remove it, navigate to the Surface Bodies dropdown in the FeatureManager and right click on the ruled surface. 

Click Delete\Keep Body and change the “Type” to “Delete Bodies”. Select the ruled surface and click OK.

With the excess surfaces removed, click the Thicken tool in the Surfaces tab. Select the outside tube surface as the “Surface to Thicken”. Change the thickness direction until the feature is thickening inward. The yellow preview should be inside of your tube.

Enter the wall thickness of your tube and click OK.

Congratulations! You have normalized your miter cut using the Trim Surface Method. This is what your project will look like post manufacturing.

Normalizing tube cuts doesn’t have to be a hassle. We hope these methods help you understand how miter cuts on rectangle tubing will look after fabrication. If you want to make sure you’ve followed these steps correctly, review our gallery here.

Now that your tube cuts are normalized, upload your laser tube projects to our Instant Quoting Engine today!

If you have any feedback about the method discussed or have methods of your own you’d like to share, email us at support@xometry.com!