SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Part II: Building Intelligence into Your Parts

FIGURE 8.2

Comparing rebuild times of a fully defined sketch to a completely undefined sketch

Patterning a sketch

It is best to pre-select the sketch entities that you want to pattern before using the Sketch Pattern

tool. If you do not pre-select, then after the PropertyManager is open, you can only select entities

to pattern one by one, because the window select is not available for this function.

Tip
When creating a linear sketch pattern, be sure to select the Add Spacing Dimension check boxes. If these
dimensions are not added, then editing the pattern becomes more difficult. n

Linear Sketch Pattern.....................................................................................

The Linear Pattern PropertyManager is shown in Figure 8.3.

Unlike other PropertyManagers, the selected entities for the sketch pattern functions are found at

the bottom of the PropertyManager instead of at the top. This is a little confusing. Sketch tool

PropertyManagers that are new for the 2010 version, such as Convert Entities and Mirror, place

the selection box at the top.

The Direction 1 panel works predictably by establishing the direction and spacing, and then the

number. The Angle setting enables you to specify a direction that does not rely on anything outside

of the sketch.

The Direction 2 panel works a little differently. You must first specify how many instances you

want, and then the other information becomes available. The spacing is grayed out until you tell it

you want more than one instance in Direction 2.