Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

I do not know what I am missing but when I sketch any basic shape i end up with "2 dimensions needed" in the lower right and it doesn't matter what I dimension or constrain I cannot get a part to Fully Constrained.  any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[#2]

Click on "Automatic Dimension" to see what's needed.

[#3 · Accepted solution]

constraints are needed to not just dimension the drawn objects but to also locate them in "space"

Assuming you've drawn a rectangle and dimensioned each side then you'll still need 2 constraints to lock it in a position on the sketch.  Options:

1) Dimension to any existing geometry

2) Dimension to the center-point

3) use a "fix" constraint to lock 1 of the corners of the rectangle

While option 3 seems the easiest 2 and 1 are better and 2 is generally the best a LOT of the time.  From the Options menu -> Sketch tab and make sure "autoproject part origin on sketch create" is ticked - now, whenever you create a sketch there will be a little dot at the origin to tie your sketch to.

If you still need constaints are dimensioning the rectangle AND dimensioning it to the origin then you probably need a horizontal or vertical constraint and check parrallel and perpendicular constraints are being set.  Basically you've created a random quadrilateral/trapezium instead of a rectangle with parallel edges.

Hope that all makes sense - if you're still struggling post a screen-shot of your sketch and we can try to show you what's missing.

[#4]

Attach ipt file here that exhibits this behavior.

You might read this document

http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/SkillsUSA%20University.pdf