Creation trace-ability

[#1]

It is sometimes very difficult to work out how a model has been created when working on other people’s 3D models.

We need more aids to teach us how someone else has created the 3D model you are now working on.

One aid could be when a sketch has been projected from another sketch, you could hover over and it would indicate the original point/line/sketch/part it was projected from?

How are things sketches created, where do they come from, what references do they use, how were they drawn?

Maybe all dimensions within the actual sketch could be one colour but dimensions to other geometry such as to the origin or to other sketches/featues/workplanes could be in different colours?

Maybe there should be a way to select something in the sketch that will highlight in the feature tree (or somewhere) the workplane it was created on or the surface it was created on, etc?

[#2]

all this can be done already. It takes me about a minute to see how others made the part. You just need more time to understand Inventor but all you are asking can be done now.

[#3]

I am sorry if I am laclking in knowledge but can you please explain to me how you could select a sketch profile in a model and from the sketch determine which work-plane or part-face it is drawn on?

In a complex model I find it hard to determine which work-plane to edit if I need to move a sketch profile (without re-defining).

If a sketch profile has a line projected into it, how do you quickly determine which sketch it was projected from?

If a work-plane is created from a point in a sketch, how could you find out exactly which point it was so you could move it?

[#4]

How would I quickly find what work-plane "Sketch4" was drawn on?

[#5]

Take the plane in the browswer lets say work plane 1. can you drag it past the feature? if so then the sketch was not created on that plane. Plus there should not be 2 planes in the same spot so just turning it on will show you where the plane is and if the sketch is in the same plane thats the work plane it was on.

[#6]

OMG, you are joking aren't you?

I know in this very simple example the sketch was drawn on Work Plane 2, but I can't drag any of the Work Planes past it. None of them, so your procedure doesn't work.

What if I had a model with 50 Work Planes in it. I would have to drag Planes 1 to 50 to see what happens. How backwards is that and I does it even work?

How about the other questions of finding out where a projected line came from, which sketch did it originate from?

I might be an inexperienced Inventor operator (needs more time to learn Inv) but I think I am right about this one!!!

[#7]

No I am not joking you must not be doing it correctly, it does take time to figure it out but it does work. And if you ever get 50 planes in a model then there is much more wrong then trying to find how it was built. Are you on 2013 or 2012 I would like to do a video to show you how easy it is.

[#8]

The model I tried that on was created in 2012 but I opened and did the test in 2013.

[#9]

nice thoughts FP.

i understand what is being debated here (many of us do this logistic manipulation many times a day especaially when working on other peoples drawings) but you are right it does take experience. i think however your idea would prove quite useful to any existing techniques already used.

thinking about sketching now actually reminds me of a few ideas i had over the years. i may throw them into a new post rather than hijack this one!

[#10]

Thanks for the nice comments.

You are welcome to put ideas here but I think a new post would have more effect.