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Negative dimension in sketch to flip dimension

Negative dimension in sketch to flip dimension

As the title says: make it possible to flip the direction of a dimension in a sketch when you make the dimension negative. I used this feature a lot in SolidWorks in the past.

57 Comments
Ben-Cornelius
Collaborator

Flip command on dimension as when dimensioning to 0 especially for skeleton
modelling the dimension can pull either way. So I propose a flip command on right click

4.jpg

karthur1
Mentor

I hear you.... I deal with this all the time.  We need some way to enter a negative dimension.  Until something like this comes along, I workaround this by changing the dimension to a driven dim, move the point to the opposite side, then change it back to a non-driven dim.

Whats weird, is that it shows a negative number when its a driven dim, but we can't enter a negative parameter...... if we could only enter negative parameters, it would solve the problem.

LT.Rusty
Advisor

... you shouldn't be dimensioning to 0 in the first place.  If you need dimension values at 0, you should be using constraints instead of dimensions.

Ben-Cornelius
Collaborator

Sorry but you quite clearly do not know what you are talking about. I have been skeleton modeling for over 10 years and this is the best was to bring to lines or points together for the following reasons

 

1. If you use sketch constraints and later need to change it you have to spend a long time trying to find the correct constraint to delete and when sketches get large it can get to the point of needing to delete geometry its quicker and easier to just change a dimension done.

2. If you do ever delete geometry you blow out all the parts using that geometry

jletcher
Advisor

Finding and deleting constraints is not hard at all if you know what you are doing..

 

  I agree with LT  and I also have use what karthur1 says and it is not hard to do and would be the same number of clicks

 

 

 

 

filat
Advisor

In the sketch, worth up to dimension range (d3). Dimension is given by the formula. Circle to the left of the line. If you are editing a sketch I need to move the circle to the right of the line, I need to remove the dimension, move the circle to create the dimension and write the formula. I want to be able to reversal the dimension of the opposite side.

Dim.jpg

Generic
Advocate

It would definitly be nice to not have to switch to and from a driven dimension to accomplish this.

brian.cranston
Collaborator

My addendum:  By entering a negative "-" at the start of the equation, it would take it to the other side of the dimension reference and strip the "-" from the equation.  It should understand what to do if you already have a negative sign at the start of the equation.

 

 

 

filat
Advisor

brian.cranston, good idea!

purkey
Contributor

Offset work planes could benefit from this as well.

paul.schutzkus
Explorer

We accoplished that by offseting a work plane and entering that equations into the dimension. Then projecting the plane to the sketch and constraining the circle to the projected geometry. If the equation is negative the the geometry will flip to the left.

 

When this was tried with a dimension it would not take a negaitive value for a dimension.

stuartmp
Advocate

It would be great if the Inventor team was able to sort out this long time outstanding issuse of

Either dimensions switching directions / side when you don't want them to.

Or

Being able to switch directions / sides when you need to without using one of the above workarounds.

 

m.numberger
Advocate

Hello,

 

i have a wish for Inventor:

Please allow in a sketch negative dimensions to change the direction.

 

Now you have to delete the dimension, pull it on the other side an man a new dimension.

 

Thanks

 

Michael

1.jpg2.jpg

 

benedikt_zeilinger2
Enthusiast

Oh yeah, I was working a long time on Creo where I used this all the time. Now i want to slap my monitor everytime i try it.

 

Wonderful idea!

swalton
Mentor

I like this function in Creo too.

 

Workaround:

Change the dimension to a Driven Dimension, and then drag the geometry to the new location.  Then turn the dimension back to a Regular Dimension.  You don't have to delete the dimension and recreate it or update any dependent formulas.

 

 

leblanc2024
Advocate

Thanks for the workaround @swalton!

 

I still would like to see this idea become a reality...

 

Please add this to the MUST list!!! 😄

 

Regards, Ivon

michael_marx
Advocate

Did you know the relax modus? (F11)

benedikt_zeilinger2
Enthusiast

@michael_marx yeah, its a good point, i should use that more often. Still i think a sketch needs to stay defined. And the negative dimension is an absoulute viable thing. After all you are drawing on a "carteesian" paper. I know its kinda vector based, (as the dimension will go in the direction of the line). Still you can flip vectors, and it would be a huge improvement.

DRoam
Mentor

I'd really like to see Autodesk come up with a way for us to constrain the direction of a dimension so that it can't be flipped. I've had a Part with nearly two full pages of features fail because one of the very top Sketches flipped a dimension after a Parameter change. If I hadn't kept my head and known to undo the update, and then retract the EOP to just after my primary Sketches, and then looked at just the right Sketch, and then looked at just the right portion of the sketch, and then known that the Sketch didn't look how it was supposed to, and then known that I needed to flip the profile...

 

As you can see, there's a lot of relying on ME doing just the right things and knowing precisely what went wrong to fix something that shouldn't have happened in the first place. The whole point of a parametric modeler is that your model retains design intent. And flipping dimensions/profiles is certainly NOT retaining design intent. This is especially important in skeletal models where some dimensions may be set to "0" and then back to a positive number.

 

There needs to be some way to specify the "vector direction" of a line or a dimension so it doesn't get flipped.

 

Related ideas:

 

dan_szymanski
Autodesk
Status changed to: Future Consideration

Idea added to backlog for future consideration [3410]. Thanks!

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