Sketcher Questions 1

[davidB026]

I am new to Pro-E and I have a number of sketcher questions that I am hoping someone can help me answer.

1) When I apply a strong dimension, if I drag the skecth the profiles still move. If the sketch can still move and twist what is the point of a strong dimension?

2) Is there a sketch analysis tool? How can I tell I have open profiles or what is wrong with my sketch?

3) Does Pro-E sketcher have colours for fully constrainted and underconstrained?

4) Is there a way that I can project a 3D line into the current sketch and set it to construction? When I right click on a project line I find that option is not avaible.

5) What constraint can I apply to make two circles concrentric? Is there a concentric constraint?

Any information you can provide me will be extremly usefull.

Thanks

 

[mjcole]

David,

Glad I could help you out on the Roll Back question. As always I'm glad to help out. I remember when I started using UG at my first job and I posted many new user questions this site is great.

I have some quick answers to some of your list above and am amazed to see a new users take at the Pro/E sketcher which PTC pretty much stopped working on after 2001 because they thought it was perfect when it was just good.

1. When I apply a strong dimension, if I drag the sketch the profiles still move. If the sketch can still move and twist what is the point of a strong dimension?

Making a dimension strong only prevents it from being automatically deleted when a conflicting dimension is added but does not lock the value.

If you instead use the right click menu and select Lock this will make it a strong dimension and lock it at the same time. Too bad there is no keyboard shortcut like CTRL+T for make strong and CTRL+G for toggle construction.

You most likely will want to enable the constraint shown below which auto locks dimensions when you change their value.
sketcher_lock_modified_dims yes

2) Is there a sketch analysis tool? How can I tell I have open profiles or what is wrong with my sketch?

No there is no sketch analysis tool but if you create your sketch before making a solid feature you can select it and do an offset cure feature which will show you discontinuities.

You can also save your section or sketch file *.sec call it sketch5_prob.sec to have a safe copy and then delete areas that look like they have problems and see if it lets you finish the sketch.

Last suggestion is go into the old user interface which in many ways is more powerful but less user friendly. This should highlight problem areas in red but it will be a bitch for a new user to be able to use which is why I mention this last. I can do another post specifically on this because it’s a big problem for many users.

3) Does Pro-E sketcher have colours for fully constrainted and underconstrained?

No, but since pro E does fully constrain a sketch using the weak dimensions which it will infer but may not be how you want to actually constrain it. When all the weak dimensions and grey constraints disappear the sketch is fully constrained.

4) Is there a way that I can project a 3D line into the current sketch and set it to construction? When I right click on a project line I find that option is not
available.

Yes you can select it as a reference and it will be projected like other references. Or if you used the Use Edge tool delete the blue sketch entity and there will be a reference line that was used to create the geometry with the ~ symbol on it.

5) What constraint can I apply to make two circles concentric? Is there a concentric constraint?

Use Point on Point and pick the arc centers for the circles.
There is also a concentric circle tool on the circle and arc icon flyout menu which will do this automatically when you create the circle.

Michael