SolidWorks® 2009 Bible

Chapter 6. Getting More from Your Sketches

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Editing sketch relations

• Copying and moving sketch entities

• Using sketch pictures

• Using sketch text

• Using colors and line styles with sketches

• Using other sketch tools

• Tutorial: Editing and copying

• Tutorial: Controlling pictures, text, colors, and styles

• Tutorial: Using meta data

Previous chapters have described the basic tools for sketching. This chapter takes you to the next level, preparing you to be able to use more advanced tools, editing and manipulating sketches, and working with sketch text, sketch pictures, and sketch colors. At the end of this chapter, with a little practice to help the information sink in, you should feel like you master the topic of sketching, and you should be able to handle almost any problem that is thrown at you.

Editing Sketch Relations

When I was teaching SolidWorks reseller classes, I frequently told my classes, "Delete is not an edit option." In time, you will find that this is good advice, even if you don't agree with it now. There are times to use the Delete command, but you should use it only when it is really necessary. In my own work, I sometimes go to extreme lengths to avoid deleting sketch entities, often just to stay in practice, but also because deleting sketch entities, or even features in a part, increases the likelihood that sketch or mate relationships will be broken.

The main reason for avoiding Delete in a sketch is that when you are editing a sketch that has other features that are ...