SolidWorks 2010 Bible

CHAPTER

Getting More from

Your Sketches

IN THIS CHAPTER

Editing sketch relations

Copying and moving sketch

entities

Using sketch pictures

Using sketch text

Using colors and line styles

with sketches

Using other sketch tools

Editing and copying tutorial

Controlling pictures, text,

colors, and styles tutorial

Using metadata tutorial

Sketching calculator tutorial

P

revious chapters have described the basic tools for sketching. This
chapter takes you to the next level, teaching you about more
advanced sketch tools, how to edit and manipulate sketches, and how
to work with sketch text, sketch pictures, and sketch colors. At the end of
this chapter, with a little practice to reinforce the tools and techniques, you
should feel like you have mastered the topic of SolidWorks sketching and
can handle almost any problem that is thrown at you.

Editing Sketch Relations

Delete is not an edit option. In time, you will find that this is good advice,

even if you don’t agree with it now. There are times to use the Delete

command, but you should use it only when it is necessary. In my own work,

I sometimes go to extreme lengths to avoid deleting sketch entities, often just

to stay in practice, but also because deleting sketch entities, or even features

in a part, increases the likelihood that sketch or mate relationships will be

broken.

The main reason to not use Delete in a sketch is that when you are editing a

sketch that has other features that are dependent on it, the dependent features

may lose their references, or go dangling. Because of this, even when you can

use the Delete command instead of making edits, it is still a good practice to

edit instead. Deleting relations is not as critical as deleting sketch entities,

unless the relations are referenced by equations or design tables.