Auto Swap Horizontal / Vertical Constraint In Sketch

[gareth.butlerS9R7M]

It would be great if when working in a 2D sketch, either part or drawing, to auto (intelligently) swap the horizontal and vertical constraint button functions.

For example, when I start a sketch looking directly at the front view in a part everything works as intended.

Lines snap to horizontal with the horizontal constraint. Vertical lines snap to vertical with the vertical constraint.

If the view is now rotated 90 degrees, the lines snap to vertical with the horizontal constraint and horizontal with the vertical constraint.

Whilst this is correct function with respect to the planes / UCS etc, it is a pain when editing sketches as Inventor regularly rotates the view during edit to what it thinks is the orientation required (not always the case!)

[simon.grondinHMUCC]

I agree that this is a frustrating issue and I've noticed it too. It'd be nice if it used POV horizontal/vertical if your view is snapped to a nominal rotation.

• You can hold 'Shift' to toggle between horizontal/vertical sketch constraints when one is selected
• You can also re-define your sketch coordinates by right-clicking your sketch. This can control what is 'horizontal' and what is 'vertical'. However, do this at sketch creation. If you do it after, it'll really mess up your sketch.

[gareth.butlerS9R7M]

@simon.grondinHMUCC  Many thanks for the tips, I wasn't aware you could do these! In the long term, the way you put it is better than I did "POV horizontal/vertical" 😁 👍

[swalton]

I believe that the horizontal constraint is tied to the x-axis of each sketch's local coordinate system. Similarly, the vertical constraint is tied to the y-axis of the local coordinate system.  

Inventor does not allow the user to define the local coordinate system at sketch creation.  It does have the Edit Coordinate System command that is available after the sketch exists in the browser.

The command is available just after sketch creation here:

If the sketch has geometry, then the Edit Coordinate System command must be accessed through the RMB and the model browser.

Users can control how Inventor rotates the view when editing the sketch. 

From the Inventor Help file:

Look at behavior

Perform minimum rotation

Rotates a minimum angle to make the sketch plane parallel with the screen, and the x axis of the sketch coordinate system either horizontal or vertical.

Align with local coordinate system

Orients the x axis of the sketch coordinate system to be horizontal and right positive, and the y axis to be vertical and up positive.

All that said, I would like it if Inventor gave me the option of defining the sketch coordinate system at creation.  Creo has worked that way for decades.

[gareth.butlerS9R7M]

@swalton Very interesting stuff! I'll have a look in to and see if it helps in my situation. Many thanks 😁 👍

[RajSchmidt]

I agree with @swalton. IMHO the alignment with the coordinate system should be the default to avoid the whole confusion @gareth.butlerS9R7M (and many others) run into.