fully constrained sketch

[office6PUWT]

I've been trying to improve the quality of my sketches having had a few issues with ones that were not fully constrained once I start modelling. I need to create a single octave from an organ keyboard and after a long time trying to work out which dimensions were missing (over 100 at one point) I used the automatic dim and constraint tool which made my sketch into a fully constrained total mess. see attached pic. is this really better going forward? I could use a good online tutorial on constraining sketches as I find the choices baffling. 

Do I need to add a dim to every single line?

what are the little pink squares telling me?

How do I select single lines within constrained geometry to offset?

many thanks

Luke

[office6PUWT]

Hi JD, 

Firstly thankyou for the time you've given to this. I greatly appreciate your help.

I have taken detailed measurements of a 1920's compton cinema organ from a local museum with a view to creating a 3d model of it for them. so whilst the 900 and 1230mm widths are set the more random ones are a result of of this. I've attached a pic of the bass pedals and trough that I've been working on for you plus an updated version of my ipt file on which I have done further work. (closed and reopened the file and the extrudes were then working for me even though the sketch is still a mess) the 38.82 deg angle was just the required dim to match the trough with the dimensions I had. I then divided this into 39 equal circular patterns to use a sketch re the pedals. It's not symetrical as it represents a piano keboard and whilst their is an 12 note octave pattern which repeats it starts and finishes at odd points in this pattern so for sake of sanity I decided to model each pedal indiviually. They are all differnt lengths and paths. Add to this the fact that they are set slightly concave towards their centre in the trough and this had been quite a challenge for me. Getting somewhere though despite dodgy underlying sketches... see attached

[office6PUWT]

Hi JD,

I've been battling away on the attached .ipt file and am pretty much there but finally unable to work out how to add holes to the curved surface plate at the less wide end of the trough. I've managed to project the relevant points onto it but my holes are being created upside down on the base for aome reason. can you advice on how to drive these holes into the partial lid please? see attached...

cheers

Luke

[JDMather]

I give up.

I took the time to start over and clean up your file, but you are not willing to do that yourself.

(Heck - you could have just continued on using my file?)

Didn't you notice an entire string of unresolved issues indicated in your browser?

I have never seen this go well...

[office6PUWT]

Hi JD,

The work I sent you last time had been done in the interim between my earlier post and your response as I had the opportunity to keep working on my file which upon repopening was extruding as intended (?). I've been looking at your repaired version and learning from it. By hook or by crook I've been able to complete the cinema organ project as the sketches though not properly constrined were fit for purpose as I'm only required to reproduce the object on behalf of a local museum. With this in mind I'm wondering whether 3ds max would have been a better platform to use for this project. I still get stuck trying to determine which parts of my geometry to apply dimesions to and find it really difficult to track them down from a list. Is there any way for inventor to show me where they are as opposed to just telling me how many? I am always grateful for your help and can only apologise if you felt frustrated by the time you put in. 

all best

Luke