Is there a "fully define sketch" button or option available?

dan_33

I'm currently working on a drawing and I'm not sure what else I need to do to fully define it without over constraining the part.  I know there's an option in solidworks that allows you to fully define a sketch at a touch of a button but is that available on Onshape (yet)?

Thanks!

cyclonewade

Not yet @dan_33 .  Have one quick thing I do is to take the blue line and see if you can drag it and that can help you determine where it is under defined.  If you share the file with support, they can give pointers.  If you post a picture, the fine folks here could help as well. You could also make a copy of the document and make the copy public which is the method that will undoubtedly give the most help.  

Cheers.

jakeramsley

I would cross/box select everything and choose Fix.  There may be some blue points floating around after (box/cross select in sketch doesn't pick up vertices).  Just select those and hit fix as well.

cyclonewade

Not yet @dan_33 .  Have one quick thing I do is to take the blue line and see if you can drag it and that can help you determine where it is under defined.  If you share the file with support, they can give pointers.  If you post a picture, the fine folks here could help as well. You could also make a copy of the document and make the copy public which is the method that will undoubtedly give the most help.  

Cheers.

jakeramsley

I would cross/box select everything and choose Fix.  There may be some blue points floating around after (box/cross select in sketch doesn't pick up vertices).  Just select those and hit fix as well.

cyclonewade

@jakeramsley   Just deployed the football and went nuclear.

dan_33

I'll try your suggestions and let you know.  Thanks for the speedy response!

dan_33

UPDATE: Both suggestions worked really well together--  moving around the blue lines to figure out what needed to be constrained and fixing the points.  Thanks, jakeramsley and cyclonewade.

traveler_hauptman

As a side note, blanket fixed constraints like this are a clear indicator that the author did not understand their sketch and probably did not have any big picture in mind. It's a big danger sign for me.

Not fully defined sketches (which Onshape needs an indicator in the feature tree for) on the other hand are a clear sign that work is not done, which is fine.

So, better to just leave it undefined in my opinion.

andrew_troup

I agree with @traveler_hauptman : I long ago resolved, from early misadventures, to use "fix" as a temporary expedient only, or an occasional diagnostic tool.

(An example of a temporary expedient might be to "pin down" one shared endpoint in a complex sketch to enable swivelling it en masse, in preparation for dimensioning lines which were formerly horizontal and vertical. I'm thinking of a sketch whose design intent has changed since creation, hence the H/V constraints have been deleted and replaced with mutually "Perpendicular" ones)

Onshape is admittedly a paradigm-shifting app, so I am open to rethink ingrained habits around 'best practice', but I don't think I would ever use it in the shotgun mode suggested here unless it was to lock down an imported profile (not currently possible)

... or if I had to get a quick & dirty model out to catch a deadline ... and even then I would go back after the dust had settled and make it good, if there was any prospect of ever revisiting the model.

I think it's a valid suggestion to break a stalemate for a beginner, but I would suggest you strive to learn how to sketch in ways which define the geometry as you go.

Another suggestion for a beginner: think about dropping the term "drawing" if what you mean is creating a solid model. Drawing is an optional stage, a way of depicting such a model (usually done when it's finished) on 2D paper or screen ... and that option is not currently implemented in Onshape.

allan_glover

I would highly recommend NOT using fixed constraints. Take the time to analyze the sketch and visualize what dimensions are required to fully define each entity