Sketch Constraints

[brengine]

I am experienced with other 3D programs, but new to Inventor...here's a really simple question...I hope.

Start a new part.
Start a Sketch on one of the Origin planes.
Draw a Rectangle
Now for the difficult portion...Constrain that rectangle to be symmetric about the origin. I can't figure out how to do it.
-I can't Constrain/Relate to any of the 3 Origin Planes, the 3 Axes, or the Center Point in the Feature Tree. I can't Project Geometry of any of these.
-I can't select the 2 XY infinite lines that do appear in the sketch. I can select the point on the screen that these 2 lines intersect at, and make by own line Coincident with that point, and then create my Symmetric Relation based about it etc...but that point does not always seem to lie on the Origin of the part, so I don't trust it. And definitely if I Redefine the Plane or Face that the Sketch was placed on (i.e. move the Sketch to a different Plane/Face)...everthing is a mess and I have absolutely no idea where that point (between the XY infinite lines) is now (relative to the Part Origin).

FYI, I have the Grid turned Off because I don't like looking at it...possibly would it help me do this if the Grid was on?

Thanks,
Ken

 

[mx2street]

Sounds like you may have an issue with your default part template. I would try to use a different one when you are starting new parts. All of your issues don't appear even on a vanilla Inventor system.

Tony Murschel, CSWA
Vista Enterprise x64
Intel E6850-4GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 4600
Inventor 2009

 

[brengine]

Would you email/post your part template? Everyone here seems to have the same problem (and we're all new Inventor Users).

Thanks either way,
Ken

 

[Azum]

Have you projected your origin onto the sketch. Application options/sketch tick box auto project origin on sketch creation. This is normal on other cad systems but has to be ticked in Inventor Without the origin being projected there will be nothing to lock too

 

[rollupswx]

http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/AU2007/MA105-1L Mather.pdf

 

[brengine]

OK. So I don't know what I was doing wrong before, but Projecting the Origin Plane/Axis Geometry is working.

I'll look into Tools/Application Options/Sketch/Auto Project Origin on Sketch Creation.

Sorry for the newbie question and thanks for all of your help,
Ken