New to SW - a question or two

Hi all:

I've been using Inventor for 6 years (through R10), but recently
changed employers and switched to SW (2005). I've taken every online
tutorial, and have a pretty good grasp of the geometry-creation tools,
etc., but I've only been using it for a couple of days. I did spend
some time trying to find answers to these before posting here, but
haven't found them:

1: Does SW have an equivalent to IV's insert constraint? In other
words, is it possible to constrain a cylindrical boss inside a hole
with a single constraint and have only the rotational degree of freedom
left?

2: When I modify the color of the part, subsequent features do not
inherit the part's color. What am I doing wrong?

3: What are some good online resources for tips and tricks, tutorials,
etc.?

Overall, SW seems to be quite capable. My biggest challenge is getting
used to the different command syntax and user interface.

Regards,
John.

 

Another question:

4: While using IV, I tried to develop the habit of referencing the
initial workplanes as much as possible when adding new features to
avoid uninteded feature relationships. However, in SW, I can't figure
out how to project the workplanes onto the current sketch. I tried
using the convert command, but it only recognizes edges from geometry,
not workplanes or axes. What am I missing?

Thanks in advance,
John.

 

If you use "Smart Mates", you can get a concentric and a coincident mate
in one go, which leaves only the rotational. This happens if you smart
mate a circular edge (intersection of a cylindrical and a flat face)
with another circular edge. Even if IV shows one constraint, I'm sure
it's two behind the scenes.

Must be that you are not changing the part color, but only the feature
or body color. Select the top level entry in the tree and change the
color for that.

There was a recent thread on links to SW websites. There is a decent
list in that thread.

Matt

 

If you are making a dimension, and the plane is perpendicular to the
current sketch, just use the dimension tool and select the plane from
the feature manager.

If you are making a sketch relation, just select the plane and the
sketch entity and make them coincident.

You can also select the part origin to make relations and dimensions to
that, even if it isn't at the same Z height as the sketch.

 

Ahh!

My IV paradigm strikes again. I knew it was something obvious.

Thanks,
John.

 

Thanks Matt!