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Using 3D Sketching Capabilities

Constraints in 3D Sketching

When sketching in 3D, you can snap to the major directions, X, Y, or Z, and constraints are applied Along X, Along Y, and Along Z, respectively. These are constraints to the global coordinate system.

When sketching on a plane, you can snap to the horizontal or vertical directions in the plane, and constraints are applied to the Horizontal and the Vertical. These are constraints to a plane, planar face, etc.

Planes

You can add planes while in a 3D sketch. 3D plane attributes include:

  • Define. Planes can be fully defined, over defined and under defined.

  • Relations. You can

    • Add or remove relations to planes.

    • Use relations to position other geometry or to position the plane.

  • Move. Move planes by dragging, resize planes by dragging the corner handles, and rotate planes using the center handles.

  • Activate. Double-click to activate a plane.

When you use RapidSketch with any open sketch tool, a plane is created on any planar face that you select.

Display

  • In the Properties PropertyManager, you can hide dimensions, relations or planes.

  • When sketching in the 2D mode on a 3D plane, entities that are not on the active sketch plane are muted.

  • Relations and dimensions that do not involve the plane or segment on it are hidden.

Sketcher Triad

Use the Sketcher Triad to limit the drag of entities.

To display the sketcher triad:

In a 3D sketch, right-click in the graphics area and select Show Sketcher Triad.

Aligning the Triad

To align the triad with the component origin:

Select the triad, right-click, and select Align with component origin.

To align the triad with the component geometry:

  1. Select the triad, right-click, and select Align to...

  2. Select a sketch entity.

You can drag the triad anywhere in the graphics area. If you drag the triad onto a surface or curve, its axes are oriented to that geometry.

Modifying Geometry with the Triad

You can drag the triad to modify the geometry in two ways:

  • Select an axis or the plane on the triad, and then drag the geometry along that axis or in that plane.

    select triad axes

    select triad planes

     

     

  • Drag the triad onto a point. It locks to that point, and then you can drag the point by dragging on the axis or plane of the triad. While the triad is locked, you can still drag other geometry.

lock to point

Related Topics

Using 3D Sketching Tools

Sketch Relations in 3D Sketches

Dimensioning a 3D Sketch

Coordinate System in 3D Sketching



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