Create sketches

00:00

Before we get started, let's make sure that we have all our snapping options turned on and the unit system is set to millimeters. To create a sketch, all we have to do is go to the sketch menu, click on it, and then we can move the mouse to one of the three axis planes. This is the Z and X.

00:27

This is the Z and Y, and this is the ground plane, the Y and X plane. So when I click on each plane, then I would create a sketch directly on that orientation. And again, pay attention to how the grid updates when I move the mouse onto any of these planes. A different option to create a sketch along the default planes is also going to the respective view, now in top view.

00:57

and you see the grid is aligned along the Y and X plane. And look at the ground plane. Then we can go to Sketch. I will go select Rectangle. I click one more time to open the menu so I can see the various three options. I will select the center to corner rectangle. Go to the origin of the sketch, click and drag out a 20 by 20 millimeter.

01:26

Rectangle and click. There we are. Let's exit the sketch. In 3D view, if I rotate, you can see now the rectangle I created being on the ground plane. I will go to the front view now. You see again, the grid is perfectly aligned now along the Z and X axis. I click on Sketch.

01:57

Again, go to Rectangle, go to the same center origin, click, and drag out a 20 by 20 millimeter rectangle. Click and exit the sketch. There we are. So you see, based on the specific view you go into, you can create sketches being horizontal or vertical.

02:25

Another option is also to create a sketch on a construction plane. To create a construction plane, I can go to Add, Construction Plane, select the sketch or any of these axes planes, say Next, and drag this one out. I click Cancel because when you click a sketch, also from there, then you see

02:53

they add plane offset. And there I'm dragging this out. Let's say 15 millimeters. Now, when I rotate my view, there you can see where this plane is. If you select this plane, it's planar. It acts like a grid. Also on that one, I can create a sketch. This time I will select the circle.

03:21

exit the sketch and rotate my view. There we are. To hide the construction plane, I will go to Items and turn off the visibility for the moment. I can actually also create a sketch on a planar face of a piece of geometry. In this case, I will select this.

03:50

sketch profile, and then drag an extruded body out. Let's go with 17 millimeters. Then I will select one edge and chamfer this one, 10 millimeters. You see these are flat planar surfaces. Also here, like with the construction plane, I can simply click on one of these surfaces and then click on Sketch and

04:20

create a circle directly on this face. Let's exit the sketch, rotate the view and zoom out a little bit. To go back into editing a sketch, I will click on this circle here one more time. And you notice how the grid automatically is being aligned actually with

04:50

the orientation of that sketch plane. The same here. You see how the grid is in front. So this actually means that when you go into a sketch, we don't have to be in a perpendicular view. We can right now simply add a new sketch element.

05:17

and it will perfectly be flat and aligned. I'm going back to show the construction plane now. Because what I would like to show you is also how sketches are associated with axes planes, construction planes, or geometry faces. I will go to the history. And

05:47

Here you see the individual commands, the features we created to build what we see. Here's the feature for the plane. If I open the menu, I can now specify the distance of that offset command. And you see, when I change this, the plane position changes, and then the sketch is moved to the same position.

06:16

And the same actually would also work with the extrusion. If I go ahead and here change the chamfer command, you will see how the sketch moves with it. And that basically is how easy it is to create sketches on the grid, on a construction plane.

06:45

or on a flat piece of geometry. We can also move and rotate sketches in 3D space by simply making use of the Transform commands. So let's go to the top view, create a new sketch. I will select rectangle from center. And from the center, I draw a rectangle out.

07:11

70 tab by 20 millimeters and enter. Let's exit the sketch and rotate our view. Now to make a copy, move this up by 50 millimeters. I can go to Transform, select Move, select the sketch. You see, I clicked on the sketch profile, select all the edges, click Copy, click on the up arrow and type in 50 millimeters and enter and done.

07:41

There we are. When we take a look at where our items are, we can also select a sketch, exit the sketch, then we are actually in the same mode, make a copy and move this up 50 millimeters and click somewhere else.