Assembly Sketches usable for constraining and creating work features

[Anonymous]

In the past I would build geometry in 3D sketches that would represent let’s say the walls of a large hopper.  Simple 3D sketching with mostly lines along the major directions. Might begin with a 2D sketch, then add 3D sketch elements onto it. (not even refering to referencing between those sketches for now)

If you create these items inside a part file (with no solid bodies) and place that part file into an assembly... you can constrain other parts to those sketched lines no problem.

But if you create the sketch inside the assembly, those sketches are no longer selectable for constraining.  It feels like they are waiting for solid bodies to be made out of them before you can reference them.

 

Even more annoying is that you cannot create work planes/axis/points using these sketches created inside an assembly, they MUST exist in a part, that is inside that assembly. This is a major pain if something is hard to constrain properly.

Seems like a very strange oversight, but adding this would prevent me from having a dummy part that contains design geometry but will never be fabricated. I then have to worry about sending it along with all my assemblies to others when we collaborate, or else the assembly will fail to build correctly. If I built the sketch inside the assembly... then I would never have this issue.

[smokes2998]

I there a way to make this work yet?

[Anonymous]

My fix for when I need to accomplish this is just to create a new with embedded sketch solely for the purpose of mating to it. This isn't so bad if it's complex, but for a simple sketch its really too bad it just can't be in the assembly.

Maybe a new Inventor revision has seen a change, but none of the patch notes I have read gave any hint that this area has been altered at all.

[Anonymous]

This is a 5+ year old request... It's pretty insane that they can't find the time to copy the functionality over from parts to assemblies.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-general-discussion/can-t-use-sketch-to-create-point-or-axis/t...

[dan_szymanski]

Idea added to backlog for future consideration [480]. Thanks!

[smokes2998]

If Catia V5 can't do it which uses a different branch of the ACIS kernal that the inventor Space Manager kernal is based on, I suspect it will need as massive rewrite of the kernel to do this.

[C_Kastanek]

It would be great to be able to select lines, arcs, splines, endpoints, etc. from an assembly's 2d sketch to be able to create Work Points, Work Planes, Work Axis, and UCSs in the Assembly environment.

This would help with:

-iLogic workflows

-Adaptive workflows

-Top-down designs

And save time from having to project into parts or create planes/points/axes in parts then make available in the assembly for specific locations. 

[fraserscott]

@dan_szymanski Has anything been action with this? Using assembly sketches would be an obvious choice for many scenarios. One in particular would be creating parts from a parametric layout sketch. If the sketch could be shared like in the parts interface surely it would be possible to create an extruded part from a boundary within this main controlling sketch? To me this seems a simple and obvious function compared to less functional methods.

[josh.nieman]

I would like to see assembly-sketch functionality expanded to allow assembly level work features to be crated from assembly sketches.

It is very unintuitive and it's also a bit cumbersome to workaround this by creating adaptive 'dummy' .ipts just to house work geometry inside there.

It is very useful to use work features to convey design intent in assemblies and subassemblies, as well as having readily accessible work features at the highest assembly level practical, whereas otherwise it might reside within a part very deep in a model tree.

[mark_a_houston]

I am hoping this is moving closer to being considered. Creating a workaround dummy part to contain the sketch consumes time and further BOM management and can be difficult to see the workflow used to create. 

[oliver.tilbury]

I'd like to voice my endorsement for this as well! 

Inventor 2025 still no joy!

@dan_szymanski has this move beyond 'for Future Consideration' or fallen off the to-do list! 😬

Thanks

[dan_szymanski]

Hello @oliver.tilbury & all,

This has not fallen off the "to-do-list" (it is logged as INVGEN-480). The primary issue is there are simply too many ideas to implement. We are doing our best to prioritize and deliver value as fast as humanly possible. One challenge we face is soon as we implement 30 ideas in a DOT1, 500 new ideas take their place. Rest assured, our Engineering Team is very, very busy.

Regards,

[MatthijsAstratec]

Hi,

Can't believe this also doesn't work in Inventor, like many features that other CAD package succeed at perfectly.

I'm talking about using a sketch entity to define a work feature.

For example, frame member has a slot hole. I want a work axis in the middle of the slot. I've done this by creating 6 work planes, defined by 6 different references.

WP1 through edges (1&2) of round part side1

WP2 through edges (3&4) of round part side2

WP3 on upper face (5)

WP4 on lower face (6)

WP5 midplane of WP1 and WP2

WP6 midplane of WP3 and WP4

work axis intersection of WP5 and WP6.

Whereas, if I could use a sketch point and a reference edge/axis or reference plane/face, it's done with one work feature!

So embarassing, it should be implemented in the beta version 25+ years ago.

Personally, I cannot fathom how a team of hundreds of smart software engineers did not come up with this idea. It's so incredible, it's ridiculous.

So here's my idea:

Let us work with sketch entities as work feature references.

[SReitberger]

Hi, 
with IV 2020 (yes, this is old ... we will update soon) I can do this as requested. 
Define a work axis by usage of a sketch point and a plane (or flat surface). This works in part and assembly environment. 

I don´t see the reason why this is not possible in your test. 

There is even a command for this in the fly out menu (but in part environment only): "Normal to Plane Through Point". I see this also in the IV 2025 help: https://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2025/ENU/?guid=GUID-38A9748E-FA2D-44D3-928C-DFE1326A9385 

create work axes normal to plane through point

[MatthijsAstratec]

Hi SReitberger,

Thank you for your comment. I'm very glad it works with you. I want for all of us to be able to work efficiently.

I'm using inventor 21. Unfortunately, I can't get it to work like you can.  This is because the work feature definition is unstable. If I can't select a (visible) sketch point, then I can't create a work feature.

If it works sometimes, and it doesn't work sometimes, it actually does NOT really work.

[dhaeg]

Reporting in from the year 2025 and still very much needing this feature!

[thesnoman1]

Like everything else, they'll get to it in 20 years. Meanwhile the one thing you can count on them adding yearly is more money to the subscription price.

[joeTNW8R]

Same Problem

[caltemus2HJZV]

2026 and looking for this basic feature still. Maybe it'll be implemented by 2030 but I'm not holding my breath. Took longer than that to get a midpoint line.

[Bearded_Engineer]

This is ridiculous how long this is taking to implement such a basic feature. We are even looking at Onshape cause we are getting tired of all the basic functionallity that is missing...

[Anh_TruongVUJ5Y]

Came across this today and realised how frustrating it is that you can't place a feature directly on an assembly sketch. Please implement this!!!!!

@Anh_TruongVUJ5Y - this post has been edited due to Community Rules & Etiquette violation.