How to tell what surface/plane a sketch is on

[laughingcreek]

It's usually obvious, but not always.  Is there some place that tells you what plane or surface a sketch currently resides on? I would have thought some kind of visual feed back would be present when doing a "redefine sketch plane" command, but I couldn't find it.

[sachlene.singh]

@laughingcreek

You are right, once you have initiative the Redefine Sketch command, there is no way to find out what plane the sketch was originally on. But before the command is initiated, if you click the sketch in the timeline or the browser, the sketch highlights in the model window and you can tell what plane it is on.

Another way, although it might be a bit of a work around, is to edit the sketch and then it is clear what plane it is on.

I hope this helps,

[laughingcreek]

Your right, it's usually clear when editing what plane/surface a sketch is associated with.  But some times it takes a bit of work to figure out.

Attached is a very simple example of what I mean.  It's impossible to tell if this sketch is on the origin plane or the surface of the solid with out editing the model.  When editing a complicated model, if the wrong plane/surface had been initially selected, this could be difficult to trouble shoot.

[sachlene.singh]

You're right. Its not very clear.

One workaround is to right click on the sketch and choose Slice Sketch and it slices the model on the plane that the sketch is. I completely understand that it doesn't work for all scenarios and that it is a workaround. I will bring it up with the product team.

[Anonymous]

Confession time:  I'm still learning "best practices", so sometimes, in the heat of creation, I create a quick plane on which to sketch or extrude or whatever.  That plane might be a duplicate of one already created. 

Sometimes I have a modeling problem I need to trace down.  Having come from a computer programming background, the ability to trace variables is the key to correcting errors.

Then at some point, it's time to clean up model so, those that follow can trace my work  without being caught in a virtual maze.  I'm careful to name all my sketches and other design element.  It would be most helpful to see what I'm working on. 

For all these reasons, showing how I got to a given point in the timeline would significantly aid in the develop of complex objects.

Thanks,

Richard

[jlarsonLP454]

Any update on adding a feature to highlight the sketch plane or otherwise identify it somehow? I am working on a model with at least 50 construction planes that someone else created and didn't label. Some of them are almost but not quite the same angle or position. It would be very useful to be able to tell what plane a sketch is on.

[g-andresen]

Hi,

I have already referred several times to the mSTsketch tools, for which there is unfortunately no longer a download

@jeff_strater 

Perhaps there will be a comparable Fusion toolkit at some point?

günther

[TrippyLighting]

I reposted this to the Fusion Slack channel (only available to Autodesk Employees and EEs).