SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Chapter 3: Working with Sketches

FIGURE 3.9

Creating a sketch fillet

Select

lines

Select

Result

Centerline follows the same methods as regular lines and is called a construction line in some cases.
Other construction entities, such as construction circles, are not available directly, but you can cre-
ate them by selecting the For Construction option in the PropertyManager for any entity.

Spline draws a freeform curve. Splines may form either a single closed loop or an open loop. In
either case, the spline is not allowed to cross itself. You can draw a spline by clicking each location
where you want to add a control point. Figure 3.10 identifies the elements of a spline. The detail
image shows the structure of a spline handle.

While the Sketch Fillet tool is easy to use and may align with your way of working in a 2D program, it

is not considered best practice to use sketch fillets extensively. Some reasons for this include:

l (^) Large changes in the size or shape of the rest of the sketch can make the fillets result in the
feature built from the sketch to fail.
l (^) SolidWorks (and other parametric programs as well) often has difficulty solving tangent arcs
in some situations. You may see fillets flip tangency or go around 270° instead of just 90°.
Using many fillets in a sketch can often cause trouble.
l (^) If you want to remove the fillets temporarily, there is no good way to do this if you have used
sketch fillets.
l (^) Sometimes feature order requires that other features, such as draft, come before the fillet,
which is difficult to do if they are part of the sketch.
l (^) Sometimes a 2D fillet simply cannot create the required 3D geometry.
Fillet features are the preferred method for creating rounds and fillets. The same can be said for cham-
fers. Still, sometimes you need to use tangent arcs in sketches. You will have to decide which way
works best for you.
Sketch fillets