Why is slot going crazy when confirming?

WaldPinkler

I don't know why my slot changes so radically when I confirm. Here's the model and before and after....

WaldPinkler

I believe this problem is with offset curves. Pretty annoying. I made another sketch and used the use tool to make a copy then do another slot which doesn't change dimensions. Feels like a hack and a run around figuring it out.

I had difficulties with offset curves on the inside of a curve. The offset curve becomes too short on that side when I want to line it up with a horizontal line for example. It also feels like I have to hack the extra section in. The offset of the outer curve is fine, it's too long then trim can be used to cut it down easily. Maybe I'm missing something with that.

S1mon

What are you trying to do with the sketch next? There might be easier ways to do what you want with the rib tool, or thickening surfaces, or there’s a thin extrude FeatureScript out there.

Offsetting a lot of stuff in a single sketch tends to confuse the solver, and not be as robust as solid or surface features, especially if the underlying layout sketch is going to change a lot. I’ve also found the slot tool in sketcher creates constraints that are more finicky. Tons of tangent relations are not great. If I needed to do a sketch like that, I might be inclined to get rid of as many circles as possible and just use lines which are parallel. I would add construction lines perpendicular and set them equal to control the widths. 

WaldPinkler

The slots make the edges of wood planks with the caulking inbetween.

WaldPinkler

The problem with ribs is that the surface isn't flat (okay I can make another surface to remove it all) and the outer corners don't line up and create a notch.

S1mon

I'm still having some trouble visualizing what you're trying to do (sharing a public model would help), but as a general comment there are times when I end up making extra geometry and then cutting it away or using it as a tool. While I typically try to avoid creating extra stuff or even re-sketching the same line/edge/surface twice, there are times when it's hard to avoid.

A classic example would be some complex pattern of holes where I end up extruding a solid block "in space" and then adding a bunch of protrusions to that part, maybe adding draft and/or fillets to the tool part, and only at the end, using boolean to subtract that tool part from the real part.

This is something I actually did in Solidworks many years ago, but it involved some complex extra bodies (parts) and steps to create the pattern. Most of the pattern is only to an offset of the nominal surface, but the speaker grill does go all the way through the wall. There are some crazy details about draft and trimming the pattern to fit with the curved outline as well. None of this would be possible in one simple step.