normal to

How can I control which way the sketch orients when hitting normal to? If
it's a 17" x 2" sketch it always seems to go where it wants, not horiz,
which would be better.

Rudy

 

I ask my VAR how SWx was determining things like horizontal/vertical ect
in reference to planes (essentially what you have when you select a planer
surface). Basically he explained that there has been a long standing
consensus among cad software companies ( might have started with the iges
std ) that determines, based upon the origin of the plane and its
relationship to the part/assemblies main coordinate system, how a plane gets
oriented ( a long mathematical solution ). Unfortunately, although it would
be much more user friendly to be able to toggle such things, SWx has no
plans to deviate from said convention. If you are lucky, someone out there
may have a macro that can help.

 

I gave up trying to do this. Never works the way I want.

When sketching at some oddball angle, the first thing I do is lay down
two perpendicular construction lines to use as a local coordinate
system. Instead of using horizontal and vertical constraints, I use
parallel/perpendicular to the construction lines. I found this to be
an effective way to deal w/ odd-angled sketches, especially if the
plane ever moves or flips.

Another thing I like to do is add base axes for X, Y, and Z right after
the origin. That way I can pick them for parallel/perpendicular
reference right off the feature tree.

 

One thing Pro/E did right was to allow users to pick horizontal or
vertical references for sketches. Sketches updated according to
references. Also handy was that you could pick which side of a plane
to sketch on.

A very nice deviation from convention.

 

Here is a workaround: hold down shift and hit the arrow key to rotate
anything 90 degrees at a time.

Stephen

 

just want to make it clearer. With the shift+arrow workaround, you
need 3 clicks to switch between vertical and horizontal. Shift+up,
left, down is one combination that will work.

clicklik

 

Rudy,
Instead of single selection, make two selections. The first is the
sketch plane, then while holding the "Ctrl" key, make a second
selection and finally, "N" for normal. The second selection will face
top or upward.
If the view will be required again & again, save it as a named view.
Eddie

 

Ok, thats a handy tip ( just used first time ). Now I have to use it
often enough that it becomes part of my sw repetoire before forgetting about
it.

 

To pick the view on a model you want to draw on, first pick the face you
want your sketch on, then while holding the "ctrl" button, pick the face you
want to be "pointing up", and press the "Normal To" button on your standard
view toolbar.