topic Flip side to cut in Inventor Forum

Flip side to cut

Mgła3 — Sat, 20 Jan 2024 01:15:10 GMT

When I have a profile, I should be able to cut the inside of it, or flip it to cut the outside. Imagine a large complex surface, and all I want to leave sticking up is a circle. I just sketch a circle and cut the exterior. This is basic functionality in Solidworks and should be a requirement of Inventor extrudes.

Re: Flip side to cut

johnsonshiue — Sat, 20 Jan 2024 01:37:32 GMT

Hi! I think you are taking about asymmetric Extrude operation. One side joins but the other side cuts. Inventor has to do it with two Extrusions by sharing the sketch.

Many thanks!

Re: Flip side to cut

Mgła3 — Sat, 20 Jan 2024 01:55:59 GMT

No that's different. That's all still inside the profile you sketch. I want to cut outside the profile so that even if I only have a circle it will leave the circle and cut everything else out to infinity but at the depth I specify. I'm converting some parts and it's such a pain when so many features can't be done in the same method because it's not an option. Thanks for trying though.

Re: Flip side to cut

SBix26 — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 00:20:19 GMT

Yeah, I can see where that would be convenient. But it's really not very difficult to project the outline of the part and use that to cut:

Sam B

Inventor Pro 2024.2 | Windows 11 Home 22H2

Re: Flip side to cut

Mgła3 — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 23:48:19 GMT

I suppose my example wasn't as complex as it could have been. It was just the model that I had open in Solidworks at the time to provide an accurate example. As soon as the surface being cut has a bunch of chamfers off the side, or portions that are different depths, you end up making wild sketches that are way oversized to try to cut everything that may exist in the future, or you attach it to dozens of edges around the perimeter. It's not a very parametric way to model, and since any change blows up the convert surface and doesn't include added surfaces or chamfers or anything unexpected. Flip side provides a simple sketch and consistent result. I don't use it every day, but I use it enough to miss it when it's not there.
This is just a random example, where I get a complex cut off of just 6 lines, a couple converted edges, and a mirror. To not miss all the chamfered edges I would have had to make all sorts of strange sketches in Inventor.

Re: Flip side to cut

chive34 — Sat, 29 Jun 2024 20:00:35 GMT

This is a really important missing feature and a huge drawback to basic functionality. Especially considered that a user needs to manually select all the closed profiles in a sketch to extrude. Why can't all loops or open lines be selected in a sketch? Why can't we choose which side of the sketch to cut on?

Re: Flip side to cut

michiVSPDK — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 01:39:21 GMT

I fully agree the user should be able to choose switch side the cut is on... internal or external of the closed loop sketch. Inventor please add this feature:)

Re: Flip side to cut

SharkDesign — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 07:09:57 GMT

Inventor won't add the feature unless you vote on the idea in the ideas forum.

It currently only has 3 people which suggests it's not that high up the priority list.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/extrude-cut-outside-of-a-sketch-boundary/idi-p/13421642

Re: Flip side to cut

SBix26 — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 12:56:11 GMT

Here's the link again (the one above just took me to the Ideas forum main page): Extrude-cut OUTSIDE of a sketch boundary - Autodesk Community

I voted for it, so that's a 33% increase!

Sam B

Inventor Pro 2026.1.1 | Windows 11 Home 24H2