Explanatory preamble: I'm detailing (making a drw for) a wormshaft which is symmetrical, apart from having a splined hole in one end for a hydraulic motor to plug into. A separate detail section would mean spilling over onto a new sheet. In the side elevation of the shaft, I don't want to turn on hidden detail to show the depth of the splined hole, partly because dimensioning to hidden detail is generally frowned on, but mainly because the worm thread is fully modelled (to show the runout detail) and hidden detail would cause the thread detail to print through from the "dark side" (as in of the moon). So the obvious answer is a locally cutaway section. Because the "depth" of a cutaway section is one of those little SldWks details which wasn't properly thought out in the first place and has never since been fixed, I prefer to create a cutaway configuration in the part, in which the cutaway exists as an explicit solid feature. But when I went to the part and added the cutaway I mistakenly added it looking at the wrong side elevation (ie the 'dark side'). I didn't realise it until I had absorbed it into a cut-extrude, which instead of revealing a splined bore showed a solid end. Here we come to the tip, trivial in this instance but in some cases a lifesaver: -------------------------- Having added a sketch to the wrong side of a construction plane, there is a very easy way to flip the hand and position: simply "Edit Sketch Plane" from (say) Right to Front, then back to Right. Each edit will rotate the sketch in the same direction through 90 degrees. External dimensions to the origin will be preserved. Internal dimensions and relations will also be preserved. This is particularly useful when the sketch is derived or pasted, and lands on the destination plane facing the wrong way.
Thanks for finding this one and posting it. Paul Kellner posted it several years ago, but I need to be reminded every once and a while. In fact, I just recently had need of it and had forgotten, forcing myself to go through a much longer process. Jerry Steiger Tripod Data Systems "take the garbage out, dear"
Erm, what's wrong with the 'depth' functionality of broken out sections? It has always worked fine for me. I typically turn on temporary axes in the drawing ans select the axis associated with the feature I'm trying to show in the cutaway. Jim S.
And I didn't really think it up. Someone else on the NG pointed it out to me. I would consider it more of a bug and have pointed it out to SW as a bug because often this phenomenon rears its ugly head in ways you don't want. I think if you turn on the red/green feature for reference planes you will see what is going on. What do you do when planes flip on their own or between service packs or releases? Much better would be the ability to flip the sense of a plane explicitly as you can do if the plane is defined by an edge/plane and angle. If anyone wants it I have a model that demonstrates this phenomenon in a very simple way. Jerry Steiger wrote: ....snip
Jim The documentation says that to specify depth, you have to select an edge, or enter a number in the Depth box. Thanks for the heads-up that a temporary axis turns out to be a viable specifier. Damn shame SolidWorks didn't think to mention this helpful fact (at least not in any Help version up to 2003) , or to clarify what the "Depth box" dimension uses as a zero datum. A feature which is so poorly described is admittedly better than one which does not work at all, but only marginally, in terms of being useful to the userbase at large. Unfortunately, SolidWorks went through a phase (and for all I know are probably still stuck there) of being so defensive about their technical writing that I, for one, found my patience and diplomacy exhausted well short of achieving any sort of long-term relationship with an improvement focus. I never said this at the time, but if they had a half-decent quality culture, they'd rub their hands gleefully whenever something so EASY to fix was exposed: "Oh goody, we get to make another improvement !" Few things are as easy as correcting a few sentences in a few human languages, but In a decent quality culture, they'd say "goody....":, even if it was HARD. As an example of the opposite problem (Help overstates entity availability), Pierce relations have for their entire (eight year?) life span, proudly boasted (under Help) of working for axes. It would be really handy if they did. Unless this has finally been fixed in 2004, they have NEVER worked for axes. I get sick of trying the same stuff again and again on the off chance they've finally decided to walk the talk. It just frustrates the hell out of me to think of thousands of users having to blunder about experimenting individually with bits of functionality to try to deduce how they are supposed to work, all for the lack, in each case, of a "ha'penny-worth" of intelligent thought and descriptive writing. My guess is that when "Broken-out Section" was first implemented, either it didn't work for temporary axes, or I forgot to try. I probably played around with trying to find out how it was supposed to work, got discouraged by the inadequate and inaccurate Help, and petulantly crossed it off my list of useful features. Question: What happens when several temporary axes are stacked up (ie all project to the same line in the target view). Does this require that you either use (or set up off-page) a related view, viewing from a direction normal to that of the target view, and pick the axis from that view? Thanks again Jim
It might have been me that pointed it out originally. I don't think I suggested it was something to use for making changes, it was probably more of a curiosity than anything. Someone had asked a question about plane normals, I think, and it demonstrated some point. Personally, I would use the the Modify Sketch tool and just mirror the sketch, which would give the same effect as flipping the plane normals. matt
Documentation? What's that? The 2004 docs still don't mention the axis thing. I must have stumbled upon it simply because it 'made sense' that one should be able to use an axis. As a beta tester for 2005, my first 5 bug reports were all errors in the text of the What's New guide. I think its been there all along,but as I said, I probably stumbled across it. I don't know. Typically, I have another view available which shows the feature 'end-on' from which I can select the axis. I don't think I've ever had to create an off page view to do it. Jim S.
I originally wrote your name down with a question mark after it as the most likely originator, but then I found Paul's note in my saved tips and tricks. But that doesn't work when your sketch has references to the model. Or does it? Jerry Steiger Tripod Data Systems "take the garbage out, dear"
External relations will survive the "other method", provided they can be resolved in the intermediate 90 degree position. Some cannot, but often in the situation when you need this GOOG card, (your spelling may vary, we spell gaol with a G) the important external relations will make it on through.
