Fully constrained - how to tell?

[KrisR]

I come froma background in various 3D packages, but can't seem to tell when a sketch is fully constrained or underconstrained in ProE....I'm new to ProE.


Please advise and thank you!

 

[vitadj]

In proe sketch is always fully constrained.

 

[telecomguy]

Yes, sketches are always fully constraineddue to assumed constraints. 99% of the time these assumptions do not match design intent though so you end up having to create your own dimensioning/constraint scheme. As you constrain a sketch, the auto-populated dimensions and constraints which show in 'gray' will begin to disappear. When they are all gone, you are in complete control of the design.

 

[KrisR]

Thank you TG. I saw how many people viewed this post and you were the only one to respond. I'm used to a rather friendly and active user forum coming from SW. Thanks again.

 

[brent.drysdale]

Hi Chris,
You may also want to consider just how you put lines and curves into your sketch as this determines how ProE applies its automatic constraints and this can save you lots of time.

For example if you want a rectangle symmetrical about a centre point you add two orthogonal centrelines first then use the rectangle tool and as you get to around the symmetrical size you will see these constraints pop up. Very quick once you know them and well worth playing around to see just what works.

There are lots of tips and tricks for constraining your sketch so I thought I would give you a few.
<ul>[*]You can add a centreline at an angle tangent to a curve to drive an angle[*]You can add an extra line and convert this to being a construction line; useful for making things such as gaps equal length.[*]Make use of the sketcher icons to turn on the "show shaded complete area" and "show open ends" as these are great friends. No idea why they are not on by default; maybe the next release [*]Draw angled lines at an exaggerated angle to avoid unwanted automatic vertical or horizontal constraints. You can drag the angle later in the sketch or with Dynamic Edit (WF5 and later).[*]Look for aligning automatic constraints, sometimes these are useful and sometimes not. If you don't want them you can again exaggerate the position so that you don't get them.[*]If any automatic constraint appears as yellow then it is already a strong constraint and will remain unless you manually delete it.[*]Logic 1: ProE is not always logical when you put in double constraints. It gives a list of constraints (or dimensions) to do something with. Most people seem to delete the unwanted ones but for dimensions especially you can usually change them to reference so that you can still se that size.[*]Logic 2: Very annoyingly the list that ProE gives when it encounters over constraining does not always show the constraint you want to delete. When this happens you take a step back and delete that constraint first and now when you add your new constraint it should work or at least give a different list.[/list]Anyhow that's it for now. Just remember that the Intent manager is really powerful but that this makes it quite complex.

Can't say how it compares to SW or Catia though.

Regards, Brent

 

[KrisR]

Thanks, Brent. I've actually been figuring these out on my own. My company hass just purchased the elearning suite from PTC, so I am focused on doing three hours of training a day in it, until I'm done. I'm looking forward to the training!