Planar Sketch (Sketch)

Sketch > New > Sketch

Sketches are 3-D parts which lie in a plane and have free edges.They are, for instance, used for the creation of extruded solids, bores and subtractions, as well as for c-edge sweeps and sectional views.

Sketches have the part name SKETCH and the part type Part with free edges. 

A sketch can contain the following sketch elements:

• Lines,
• Polygons,
• Circle,
• Circles,
• Ellipses,
• Curves,
• Special elements such as straight lines, projections, hyperedges etc.
• Auxiliary geometries.

Use the functions of the Sketch tab to draw the sketch. Please note that the sketch elements are always drawn in the sketch plane. The sketch plane is automatically placed in the active processing plane (unless nothing different was specified in the Novice configuration). If no processing plane is active, the sketch plane is placed in the XY-plane of the active coordinate system. If you want to use a different plane as sketch plane, use the plane functions that you access via Sketch > New.

If you select Drawing > Others > Extras > Novice configuration, you can influence the behaviour of the Create new sketch in plane function with respect to the sketch planes. The following checkboxes are available:

• Right-click to use active surface as plane

If you selected Yes, you can select a surface as sketch plane by right-clicking the plane during sketch creation. Default: Yes

• Prompt for plane when creating sketch

If you selected Yes, HiCAD automatically prompts you to specify the screen plane when you create a new sketch. Default: No

• Default plane for new sketch

If you selected Yes, HiCAD automatically also displays the basic planes when a new sketch is created (with prompt for sketch plane), i.e. the XY-, YZ, and the ZX-plane of the World CS. Default: No

• Rotate new sketch in model view

If the value is set to Yes, the sketch plane will be rotated parallel into the screen plane when a new sketch is created. Possible settings are:

• Yes (1 part): The sketch plane is rotated if only the processed part is visible.
• Yes (always): The sketch plane is always rotated into the screen plane.
• No: No rotation.

Default: No

Clicking opens a pull-down menu with the following functions:

	Sub-part Select this function if you want to insert a sketch as a sub-part.
	Convert Use this function to convert 2-D parts into sketches.

Please also read the notes on the purposes and representation of sketches.

Please note:

• Sketches are displayed on the screen with a thicker line weight and marked in the ICN with the symbol .
• In the case of 3-D objects derived from sketches, HCM dimensional constraints assigned to the sketch are adopted as parameter dimensions. This applies, for example, to extruded solids or revolved solids as well as to bores, subtractions etc.
• If a part contains sketches with HCM conditions as sub-parts, these dimension conditions can be automatically displayed during identification of the superordinate part. For this to happen, you need to activate the Dimension sub-sketch checkbox in the settings of the Composite Edge HCM.
• Sketches have priority over congruent solid edges. In other words, if the cursor is in the vicinity of two exactly overlapping edges and one of these edges belongs to the active drawing, this sketch edge is always marked and identified when you click it off. This behaviour is supported both in shaded views and in glass body representations.
• The functions for sketch creation can also be accessed via the context menu for parts.

Working with Sketches (3-D) • Sketch Functions (3-D)