Sketch - Pattern Curves 1

[lorenolepi]

Quick question about the Pattern Curves in sketch... Whats the easiest way to remove the patterned curves if you no longer want them? All I see is the ability to delete individual curves but not as a group. The problem I'm having is that when going back to a sketch that used pattern curves there is no way to know its a pattern curve unless you turn on show all constraints and seeing the pattern symbol.

 

[JohnRBaker]

If you had thought about this ahead of time you could have opened a new 'Active' group and then created your pattern. If you followed this workflow for each pattern, then it would be easy to delete all of the members of a pattern.

But of course, that's not your problem since you state that the sketch already exists. Now there is an easy way to discover which curves are pattern curves or not and that can be done by selecting the 'Show/Remove Constraints' icon and then selecting a Pattern Constraint from the list of constraints as this will at least cause all the members of the pattern to highlight so you know what curves are part of what pattern. Now you still can't delete all the members of the pattern in one operation, but I can make it little less tedious to do so, particularly if there are a lot of pattern members.

So once you know which curves are members of the pattern you wish to delete, select one of the pattern MEMBERS (not the original curve), press MB3, select the 'Edit...' option, which will take you to the 'Pattern Curve' dialog. Now change the 'Count' to '2' (you can't change it to '1') and hit OK. At this point you will now ONLY need to delete ONE pattern member to delete the pattern itself.

Now this assumes that you're only trying to delete the Pattern MEMBERS and not the original curve(s) as well. Since to delete EVERYTHING related to the 'Pattern' you could have just deleted the original curve(s) and the rest would have been deleted as well.

Anyway, give my 'Divide & Conquer' approach a try and see if that helps.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[lorenolepi]

Thanks for the workflow tip, I am excited to give it a try! (but it will have to wait until the AM once I'm back on the clock)
I currently have been using your divide and conquer technique and your right it does eliminate the majority of curves besides the original. I find for most sketches that have patterns its not that difficult to figure out witch ones to delete but for ones that have a circular pattern that connects end to end it gets little tricky.

I never tried to apply groups to curves w/in sketches but I can see how it could be beneficial in this type of situation as well as a few others . Is it a similar concept to feature grouping and applying that feature group as the active group (I use feature groups on a daily basis so I am familiar with those)?

Is there any more plans on enhancing the patterns...Maybe making some type of selection intent so users wouldn't have to go through the extra step of grouping the curves?

 

[JohnRBaker]

With respect to the idea of a 'group' option I talked to the Sketch team leader and I suggested that perhaps it would be nice to have an option as part of the Pattern Curve function which would create a unique 'group' of the pattern members (not the original curve, just the members) which would then make it very easy to do all sorts of stuff since you can select the group, which selects the members. He suggested that we'd consider this as an enhancement if it was requested by a customer, so if you think this would worthwhile, please contact GTAC and have them open an ER to that effect (add option to Sketch 'Pattern Curve' to create a unique Group containing the Pattern members). Note that customer ER's have a much greater influence on allocation of the R&D resources as do the ERs' which I (as an internal Siemens PLM employee) write.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[lorenolepi]

On it! I will submit an ER tomorrow.

 

[lorenolepi]

John,
I woke up this morning and for some reason I was thinking about this (strange huh)? I was wondering what would be a good approach to this issue, whether it be a group/selection intent etc... I think I got a good solution but wanted to run it by you.
What do you think about a "Sketch Navigator"? The sketch navigator could be this magical navigator that would list sketch orientation (kinda like re-attach/orient view to sketch), all curves, dimensions and constraints with different filters. (if this is to much to list in one, then have different views for the navigator like the CAM/Inspection Navigators) This would allow for easy grouping, simple right clicks options, and a familiar format for users. If assembly constraints got their own navigator...

 

[JohnRBaker]

Actually something like that already exists. To see what I mean, open a new part and create a sketch. Create several different types of curves, add some dimensions create a group, etc. Now go to the Part Navigator and with your cursor over some 'white space', press MB3 and toggle OFF the 'Timestamp Order' option. Now expand the 'Unused Items' and select the Sketch object. You can now expand it to see it's members, dimensions, groups, everything but the Constraints.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[lorenolepi]

Placed the Enhancement Requests, here are the numbers if you ever want to reference them

ER for pattern curves = 6689027
ER for sketch navigator = 6689047