Extrude to Sketch Point?

[mw2]

I am a longtime Solidworks user who is considering switching to Inventor. My primary reason is that I am using AutoCAD more and more, and I am hoping that Inventor will even have slightly better integration with AutoCAD than Solidworks does. A few years ago I did a trial of Inventor and was frustrated by a few small things, one of which was I did not seem to have the ability, in Inventor, to extrude a feature and use a sketch point as the "extrude to" feature. In Solidworks I've developed the practice of using reference sketches for a lot of uses, one of which is to give extrusion points (I try to never reference vertices or faces etc, of actual features since they change most often as I revise designs).

Does the newest version of Inventor allow any such Extrude to a sketch point or similar?

Thank You

[mw2]

I am a longtime Solidworks user who is considering switching to Inventor. My primary reason is that I am using AutoCAD more and more, and I am hoping that Inventor will even have slightly better integration with AutoCAD than Solidworks does. A few years ago I did a trial of Inventor and was frustrated by a few small things, one of which was I did not seem to have the ability, in Inventor, to extrude a feature and use a sketch point as the "extrude to" feature. In Solidworks I've developed the practice of using reference sketches for a lot of uses, one of which is to give extrusion points (I try to never reference vertices or faces etc, of actual features since they change most often as I revise designs).

Does the newest version of Inventor allow any such Extrude to a sketch point or similar?

Thank You

[gcoombridge · Accepted solution]

That approach is best practice in inventor too (in my opinion anyway).

You can definitely extrude to a sketch point, I do this many times a day. 

[gcoombridge · Accepted solution]

That approach is best practice in inventor too (in my opinion anyway).

You can definitely extrude to a sketch point, I do this many times a day. 

[peter.kapitola]

Is there a way to extrude FROM a sketch point? If there is, I can't find it. It keeps asking me to "select face".

From SolidWorks, I also am used to having a skeleton sketch on a single plane and then extruding between vertices. Inventor seems to let me extrude TO a vertex but not FROM a vertex. Does this mean I'll have to create extra planes?

[peter.kapitola]

Is there a way to extrude FROM a sketch point? If there is, I can't find it. It keeps asking me to "select face".

From SolidWorks, I also am used to having a skeleton sketch on a single plane and then extruding between vertices. Inventor seems to let me extrude TO a vertex but not FROM a vertex. Does this mean I'll have to create extra planes?

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Peter,

Indeed, Inventor does not support Extrusion starting from a point or a vertex or a workpoint. The starting selector has to be a face (planar or nonplanar) or a plane.

Many thanks!

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Peter,

Indeed, Inventor does not support Extrusion starting from a point or a vertex or a workpoint. The starting selector has to be a face (planar or nonplanar) or a plane.

Many thanks!

[mw2]

Wow. I had no idea I could extrude in SW from a sketch point. Very cool to know....

[mw2]

Wow. I had no idea I could extrude in SW from a sketch point. Very cool to know....

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Fusion 360 also supports this workflow.

Many thanks!

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Fusion 360 also supports this workflow.

Many thanks!

[peter.kapitola]

Thanks. Digging further, it looks like this has been suggested a few times already. Hopefully it will get pushed through soon.

[peter.kapitola]

Thanks. Digging further, it looks like this has been suggested a few times already. Hopefully it will get pushed through soon.