So I have a behavioral change request for sketches.
As it currently works if you create a sketch on a plane you can add to it modify it etc and it acts as a single sketch. You can select parts of that sketch and move them independently or select the entire sketch in the navigation panel to modify the whole thing.
You can then hide this sketch. However, if you go back to the same plane and start sketching again, it will unhide that first sketch and add to it.
I would like the ability to force/override that unhide behavior so that I am able to create a new sketch without the first sketch unhiding itself. Sometimes If i am sketching features the sketch can get complicated and dense and I want the ability to start from a clean spot but not loose what I previously sketched without constantly hiding the old sketch.
You could implement this by giving two hide options. 1 that hides in the current method and a disable option that force hides the sketch or object for that matter until you manually go back and re enable it.
In the history based version you can already create independent sketches on the same plane, without them interfering with eachother. If you haven’t yet, give it a try!
I don’t have a background in Parametric modeling. I essentially started and have grown my CAD modeling experience on the back of Shapr3d as it has developed and matured. I am very used to it’s open drafting workflow. So for me when i delete a sketch i’m used it to the sketch just deleting and moving on my way.
I see in parametric though now when i delete a sketch it breaks a bunch of connections and even deleted an extruded part. If I want to delete a sketch in parametric what is the best way to do that? Breakpoint? Suppress? Delete? I’m not exactly sure.
I hear you… my workflow with direct modeling was to delete almost all sketches before I was done with the design. It was quite an awakening when that destroyed everything! The other big thing I’ve learned with the beta is I needed to work more on my sketches and get constraints set up properly.
I can definitely see that. Will need to change a few of my workflows but not end of the world.
Do you have any examples for constraints? I understood the basic concepts in locking points or lengths from messing around with Solidworks. Anything else I should keep in mind?
Examples of constraints… visualize a box with one vertical and one horizontal divider. The horizontal divider should always be in the center, and the vertical divider should always be 100 mm from the left edge. With proper constraints, you can drag the appropriate corner (opposite from the one locked point) and make the profile of that box follow your constraining rules (half and100mm) regardless of how big you make the box.
Another, think of a floor plan where the walls are 4 inches thick, and you want to change them to be 6 inches… having used the equal constraint, changing the appropriate wall thickness to 6 will change them all.
Keeping the lines that should be horizontal/vertical, that constraint is useful so you don’t move a point/line and have your design get skewed. Symmetry is a very useful constraint… usually when I use mirror to create a detail, I’ll add the symmetry constraint.
That said, you don’t have to have to have all the constraints; direct modeling will work… but changing a sketch can be a lot easier. I’m hoping I get better so making a “well constrained” sketch doesn’t seem like work.
There are some great tutorials here that are worth viewing:
As Bob mentioned, in history based parametric modeling, you generally don’t want to delete sketches (unless you also want to delete the whole history built on top of it).
Used sketches will automatically be made hidden, so they won’t clutter the workspace, for the rest, you can hide them in the items panel.
The other big thing I’ve learned with the beta is I needed to work more on my sketches and get constraints set up properly.