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Refine Shape Feature

In one sentence: Wrap a solid in a feature that removes redundant seam edges left behind by boolean operations, leaving only topologically necessary edges on smooth faces.

Overview

Workbench: OpenSCAD
Menu: OpenSCAD → Refine Shape Feature
Shortcut: none

Creates a Part::FeaturePython named refine_<original> that hides the source object and applies the OpenCASCADE shape refinement algorithm to remove seam edges — redundant edges on smooth faces that boolean operations leave behind. Equivalent to enabling Refine in Part Boolean settings, but applied as a discrete, removable feature.

Intuition

When two faces are fused together by a Boolean Union, their shared boundary becomes an edge even if both faces were perfectly smooth across it. These "seam edges" appear as faint lines on otherwise smooth faces — they are topologically harmless but visually distracting and can interfere with downstream operations (fillets, STEP export, surface analysis). Refine Shape Feature removes them in one step.

When to use it

  • A Boolean Cut or Fuse leaves unwanted lines across what should be a smooth face.
  • You are preparing a shape for STEP export and want clean topology.
  • You want to apply refinement as an explicit, reversible step (rather than using the "Refine" checkbox in boolean settings).

When NOT to use it

  • When you need the seam edges — some seam edges mark the boundary between different materials or surface zones; removing them loses that semantic information.

Step-by-step

  1. Select one Part::Feature object.
  2. Choose OpenSCAD → Refine Shape Feature.
  3. The original object is hidden and a new refine_<name> object appears.
  4. To remove the refinement, delete refine_<name> and unhide the original.

Parameters

No task panel — operates automatically on the selected object.

Common mistakes and pitfalls

Visible edges remain after refinement

Cause: Some edges that look like seams are real topological edges (e.g. where two flat faces meet at a sharp angle). Refine only removes truly redundant edges.
Fix: The remaining edges are real. Use Part → Fillet to soften them, or accept them as genuine topology.

Python API

import FreeCADGui as Gui
Gui.doCommand("Gui.runCommand('OpenSCAD_RefineShapeFeature', 0)")

See also