Tips for robust sketches 12

[KENAT]

Does anyone know of any kind of document or something similar which has a list of tips or a design guide for making robust sketches?

I have at least 2 colleagues who've had trouble in this area and just keep complaining and saying things like "it's not as good as Pro E" or "it's not as user friendly as Solid Works" or "this is why it only has 3% of the market" etc.

I've tried to share what I know (although largely self taught I’ve been using SE since 1999 and like to think I’m fairly good) and we actually have some guidelines in our Design Room Manual but neither of them pay much attention.

Even if you don't have any references maybe if any of you can give your top 3 or 5 or whatever tips.

Sorry if it's a bit of a rant but I just had to walk away from one colleague before it got ugly!


KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[SLemin]

Ok, a few others....

use 'A' and 'L' to swap between an arc and a line for quicker sketching.
V20 - 'm' will jump to midsection, 'i' to the intersection, 'e' to the end and 'c' to the centrepoint.

smart dimension - using a or shift will toggle dimension types.

 

[KENAT]

Thanks Slemin, there's a few other shortcuts I thought of putting like toggling the sketch plane orientatation etc.

I'm wondering if 'cool shortcuts' should be a different list though.

Guess we could have a vote!

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[KENAT]

Well thanks all.

This morning my boss mentioned one of the users had said something about the sketcher so I figured I better format this and post it on our company wiki & email a link to all CAD users at my site.

For all of you I also put it into a FAQ. My company version had some illustrations, if there's enough requests from you guys I'll find somewhere online to put the illustrations and link them from the FAQ.

faq562-1410

As most of you probably know you can give me feedback on the FAQ and it can be edited.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

HDS,
SW has an option to allow an undefined sketch, or to force a fully defined one.

KENAT,
Great list! A couple more items for consideration;

When creating standard parts for a library (or catalogue) never use "in context" (I'm not sure what the term is for SE) constraints with other parts.

When creating patterns, it is usually better to pattern a feature rather than a sketch entity.

 

[KENAT]

Cheers CBL.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...