How to make unconstrained sketches unselectable when visible?

[mwhitten123]

Hello all,

How to make unconstrained sketches unselectable when visible?

For specific CAD/CAM reasons, I need to leave certain sketches unconstrained and visible. The problem I am having is that Fusion will allow you to move the geometry even when the sketch is closed. Is this a setting somewhere that I am missing?

Thank you in advance!

[jhackney1972]

You can make sketches unselectable if your remove the indicated entries in your selection filters.

[mwhitten123]

Your help is much appreciated, but if I do that, it won't let me edit the sketch while it's open. I have lots of sketches, so this is kind of an issue. I suppose that the problem is that I am used to another system. I will work around it for now.

Thank you!

[jhackney1972]

From what I read, in your original post, your sketches were finished and you were working in the manufacturing environment.  So, now that I have a better understanding, I think a possible solution is to select all the sketches you want to not be able to move or modify, and then select the "Fix" constraint.  You will still be able to select them but not do anything to them like drag them or move them.

[mwhitten123]

Hello jhackney1972,

I understand. This is the workflow I currently use in Fusion, but fully constraining the sketch even using the Fix option is extra work that is not required when using SW. At this point, it is my only option with this software it looks like. I will just learn to deal with it.

I appreciate the help!

Thank you,

[laughingcreek]

It's a bit annoying that individual sketches don't have an "selectable/unselectable" option from the right click menu like bodies and components do.  Seems inconsistent from  UI point of view. I wonder if this is a programming oversight, or on purpose. ( @jeff_strater , your thoughts on that?) .

Depending on the structure of your model, another possibility would be to put sketches in a separate component, and then make that whole component "selectble/unselectable" 

[mwhitten123]

Putting the sketches in a separate component is a good idea and I did have it that way for a while, but because its a large CAM project with other people involved, I think that it's best to just keep the planes (Toolplanes) and sketches (containment's) and the top level node. We will just be careful until this hopefully gets fixed/enhanced. It seems that there should simply be an option to disallow sketch geometry modification when the sketch is closed. Visibility should be just visibility.......just the way I think is all.

It would be good to hear what Jeff thinks though.

Thank you!

[chrisplyler]

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@mwhitten123 wrote:

For specific CAD/CAM reasons, I need to leave certain sketches unconstrained and visible.

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I am curious what those reasons are exactly. Off the top of my head I cannot think of any reason not to fully constrain my Sketches.

[jeff_strater]

@laughingcreek - it is inconsistent, I agree.  I guess no one ever thought that there would be a need for a sketch that is visible and not selectable.  In general, sketches are kind of used as input for features, and after that, are only needed when you want to edit them or consume them in another feature.

It's a valid request.  I'll put it in, but to be honest, this is the first we've heard a request for it, so my guess is that it is unlikely to get implemented any time soon.

[mwhitten123]

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@chrisplyler wrote:

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@mwhitten123 wrote:

For specific CAD/CAM reasons, I need to leave certain sketches unconstrained and visible.

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I am curious what those reasons are exactly. Off the top of my head I cannot think of any reason not to fully constrain my Sketches.

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I am surface milling a very difficult 5ax simultaneous part using 3+2, so I need to create lots of containments by eye and adjust them slightly along the way. I can and do constrain them now, but in SW it's not really required as once you close the sketch, it can't change. It's just time is all, from now on, I just need to work differently due to this limitation. It won't kill me, it seems weird that editing a sketch is allowed when your not actually editing it. Not very intuitive I believe.

Thank you for the input

[mwhitten123]

Hello Jeff,

I appreciate your help on this. As I already mentioned, I can and will fully constrain from now on, but honestly, why should the user be allowed to edit a sketch when not in edit mode. It just doesn't make sense - just my take on it.

Thank you all!

[laughingcreek]

It's nice to be able to drag the sketch elements around during the conceptual/design phase of creating.  Particularly with lofts where there are generally several sketches involved.  being able to directly tweak the sketches, and see the result, with out having to go and find , open/edit and close a sketch is great.  Because the timeline gets rolled back when you edit a sketch, all the modeling you've done to that point goes away (or rather hasn't been done yet at that point in time) so you can't see it.  being able to make adjustments while still viewing the solid and seeing the effect on the fly is a time saver.  I do it all the time.

[chrisplyler]

@laughingcreek 

I do the same, but instead of by dragging, I enable Show Dimensions on the fully constrained sketches, and manipulate them as necessary. Still get the real-time update with every edit, and retain visibility of everything, but have fully constrained sketches.

[kb9ydn]

I think what you really want here is a way to turn off sketch editing outside of the sketch editor.  If you make sketches un-selectable, how would you be able to select them to use as containment boundaries?  Once they're already selected I guess it would work, but then you would have to toggle the setting more often.

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[mwhitten123]

I appreciate all of the great support here, but just to be clear, I feel that is a bug/limitation in Fusion. Why would it allow you to edit a sketch when it's not open for editing. This doesn't make sense to me.

Further, when running HSMWorks, CAMWorks or Mastercam for SolidWorks (all run within SW), everything is fine. Sketches are only able to be edited when they are explicitly open for editing. Once they are closed, they can be selected by the interface and CAM program. In other words, we can perform CAD functions such as relations and CAM function such as selecting for containments etc.

Thank you, 

[TheCADWhisperer]

Maybe someday the Fusion developers will walk across the hall and talk to their Inventor cohorts about Sketch Blocks.

[chrisplyler]

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@TheCADWhisperer wrote:

Maybe someday the Fusion developers will walk across the hall and talk to their Inventor cohorts about Sketch Blocks.

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Maybe. Do keep in mind that Autodesk probably does not want to create a Fusion product that will approach their Inventor product so closely that it would cannibalize sales. Fusion has a lower price point, and is probably intended to capture those users who think Inventor is too expensive and are willing to accept the trade-off of some slightly lesser capabilities.

Just a very generalized guess at what is likely to be quite a complex business decision making tree.

[kb9ydn]

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@mwhitten123 wrote:

I appreciate all of the great support here, but just to be clear, I feel that is a bug/limitation in Fusion. Why would it allow you to edit a sketch when it's not open for editing. This doesn't make sense to me.

For more conceptual modeling it may be helpful to allow dragging of sketch entities from outside of sketch mode.  Personally I wouldn't use it but I can see how it might be useful for doing quickie concept models.  It's definitely a feature, but there needs to be a way to turn it off.

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@mwhitten123 wrote:

Further, when running HSMWorks, CAMWorks or Mastercam for SolidWorks (all run within SW), everything is fine. Sketches are only able to be edited when they are explicitly open for editing. Once they are closed, they can be selected by the interface and CAM program. In other words, we can perform CAD functions such as relations and CAM function such as selecting for containments etc. 

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Actually that's not entirely true.  Solidworks does have something called "Instant 2D" that lets you drag sketch dimensions (from inside or outside sketch mode) to change them.  Fortunately you can turn it off.  😝

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