SolidWorks® 2010 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

• Editing and copying tutorial

• Controlling pictures, text, colors, and styles tutorial

• Using metadata tutorial

• Sketching calculator tutorial

Previous chapters have described the basic tools for sketching. This chapter takes you to the next level, teaching you about more advanced sketch tools, how to edit and manipulate sketches, and how to work with sketch text, sketch pictures, and sketch colors. At the end of this chapter, with a little practice to reinforce the tools and techniques, you should feel like you have mastered the topic of SolidWorks sketching and can handle almost any problem that is thrown at you.

Editing Sketch Relations

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 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 to not use Delete in a sketch is that when you are editing a sketch that has other features that are dependent on it, the dependent features may lose their references, ...