Direct editing: creating driving dimensions from selected references

aleksei_ovsienko — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 12:43:45 GMT

Link to example - https://a360.co/4l33huU

Let's say I have downloaded STP for this extrusion. And I want to direct edit it so that the bar is 300 mm long.

I turn the "Capture design history" on and either extrude on the face or move it. I can select by how much. And I could calculate by how much to move the surface. But what I would like to be able to do is to create a parametric end-to-end dimension of 300mm so I could go back to it, change it, make it configurable, use it. I tried using Find features, and it would recognize an Extrude feature but leaves it uneditable.

I understand there's a workaround in this particular case, I could have just used the extrusion profile, get rid of the body and extrude the profile by how much I want it. But in other cases when you're working with imported geometry or with legacy CAD, it may not be that simple. And being able to create parametric dimensions from selected references as part of direct editing would be very useful. It would in fact be useful even in normal parametric modelling because it's not a given that you want to dimension a feature from the face you extrude it on. I've used a lot of this in Creo which has very similar (if not more basic) direct editing but allows you to create dimensions from any reference and keep using them.

One workaround is using an equation where you substract the original length from the desired length to extrude, but then again, were it a more complicated part it wouldn't have been as easy to do this.

The closest I could get to what I want was creating a plane offset by 300 mm, then extruding to it. That makes the offset dimension the driving one. But it's still a bit roundabout.

Re: Direct editing: creating driving dimensions from selected references

TheCADWhisperer — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 14:01:36 GMT

@aleksei_ovsienko

Set a parameter to standard stock length (from vendor).

Set a parameter to desired length. (No calculations required.)

Re: Direct editing: creating driving dimensions from selected references

TrippyLighting — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 14:18:45 GMT

If you use only a single extrusion, the move-tool-workflow is fine.

If you are creating a more complex frame from extruded profiles I would not work with individual profile components!

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Direct editing: creating driving dimensions from selected references

Re: Direct editing: creating driving dimensions from selected references

Re: Direct editing: creating driving dimensions from selected references