Copy Surfaces

Copying a surface from one part to another is a very useful tool when you want to build In Context relationships between parts, especially when you get an unruly imported file with thousands of surfaces... .but you only need to ‘touch’ just a few.
I also use it for operations where I may want to simulate a Coating or Tape application on a part. Just Copy the Surface and Thicken it as a new Body.
What you may be asking yourself is: "That sounds great, Darin, but there is NO ‘Copy Surface’ Command"... .and you’d be absolutely CORRECT!
Many users try to use the KNIT SURFACE command, but this doesn’t work unless the faces you select are adjacent to each other and can form a single, ‘knitted’ surface.

However, there is a simple trick to this one, and it lies in the OFFSET SURFACE COMMAND. Pick a face or faces, adjacent or disjointed, and select OFFSET SURFACES from the Surfaces Tab.

It will show the selection, and the title in the Property Manager will state “Offset Surface” until you set the distance to ZERO. Then the title changes to COPY SURFACE. That’s it! You can use this in context of an assembly, and while editing a part you can select faces of other parts and Copy the Surfaces. This will create Associative Surfaces in the part you are editing. This tool really has dozens of use cases.