tips backlog -' tweak' references for 2D and 3D contours

As an industrial designer, much of my sketch editing is to tweak a contour
in relation to where it was before. You know... I need the contour to be
thinner here, bulge out more there, etc. For years I have been using the
following technique to create a reference for tweaking, so I know what the
curve looked like before I started messing with it. I will highlight a
sketch I wish to edit, CTRL+C (copy) it then Ctrl+V (paste) onto the plane
the sketch was originally created on. Then I will drag the copy up the tree
to a position above the sketch I wish to tweak, so I can use the copy as a
reference when editing the original

If the sketch is on a model face, copying and pasting is less robust - a
sketch pasted on to a model face will rarely be in the same position as the
original. In those cases, I will start a sketch (on a plknae if I can!),
then convert the edges of the original into the new sketch. Then I go to
display/delete relations and delete all external relations, which will allow
this new sketch to be dragged above its original parent. But of course I
mostly create sketches on planes, so the need for this is pretty infrequent

But what about 3-D sketches? We can't copy and paste those, can we (not a
rhetorical question - I really do not know for sure). Since I can't identify
a way to copy and paste a 3-d sketch, I will instead start a new 3-d sketch,
convert the edges of the first 3-d sketch into the new one, then go to
display/delete relations and delete all the relations. I can then close out,
and I have a perfectly safe copy of the original 3-D sketch that I can drag
up the tree to use as a reference for tweaking the original.

An extra bonus to getting in the habit of creating reference copies before
editing sketches - if you edit a sketch and close out of it, you lose the
ability to undo your changes. By having a reference copy of the sketch from
before it was edited, you will have a template for returning the model to
its prior state if you learn things were better off before you started
editing. Its also nice to be able to have a revision history of some key
sketches in models. I don't know about you folks, but I really like working
with a net when I can!

 

Yes, you can. Click in the FM on the 3D sketch, ctrl-C, ctrl-V.

 

Boy is my face red - they couldn't ae made it any simpler and I still missed
it.
Anyway, the convert then remove relations is useful for bringing model edge
information, projected curves, etc up the tree, so maybe it will be of some
use to somebody. And your tip is certainly of use to me!

 

Ed believe me, no need to be embarassed. You've given more super-advanced
tips here than anyone. We all owe you for the amount of SW knowledge
you've created and shared for free.

Matt.

 

Ed

nothing imitation about your pearls of wisdom, they help us rise above the
level of real swine