Fix Axes for Sketch Creation

[janelson33]

So, I've posted about another painfully obvious issue like this before. I really don't understand why the folks at Autodesk think this is acceptable, normal, practical, reliable....I've got so many other non-fowl words I could interject.....

So, I've found another preposterous happening that just shouldn't exist, PERIOD.

Cite this beautiful screen-shot:

WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?!?!?!?!

PLEASE FIX THIS!

This is how the software thinks the axes should be after the creation of the first sketch for a new part on the Y-Z Plane.

This is so silly, and is just a recipe for disaster!

Absolute coordinate systems for the whole part are key! I've got UCS to use all day, why is this software doing this?

THIS IS SO INSANE!!!

The vertical constraint is actually the horizontal constraint and vise-versa.

THIS IS NOT NORMAL, do not try to argue this...or, have a greatly-developed, bulletproof argument to tell me why this is superior to the universal constants of X-Y-Z. Even if you wanted to argue 1st vs 3rd Angle Projection design, no thanks! X is X, Y is Y and Z is Z, ABSOLUTELY! Like I've said, we have UCS to do ANYTHING ELSE!!!!!!!!

[Walt_Jaquith]

Hardly a 'bullet-proof' argument, because I agree that this is a pain point, but there is a reason for it. Even in a blank part, you have three different options for placing a sketch, and that sketch can be viewed in any orientation. Even in AutoCAD starting from the standard WCS, if you rotate your view 90 degrees, what the software considers to be horizontal is going to present as vertical to the user. So the sketch might be placed on any of the planes (or on any existing surface on the geometry, no matter how weirdly it's oriented), but in the sketch itself you are always drawing on x-y, with z being 'up'. While this does cause some confusion, I think the alternative--always matching the part's coordinate system so that sometimes you're sketching on x-y, sometimes on x-z, etc--would be worse. And none of that would solve the issue of the user being able to rotate the view so that horizontal presented to them as vertical.

The key to understanding it is that when you're in a sketch, the sketch orientation indicator is the one that matters. The part indicator could be skewed to any orientation, but the sketch indicator will tell you what Inventor considers to be horizontal (x axis) and vertical (y axis) for that sketch.

Don't get me wrong; I sympathize with your feelings here. I don't see a lot of rhyme or reason to the way inventor chooses to orient the sketch when I first place it. But given that the part itself might be rotated to any orientation, I'm not sure how Inventor would decide definitively what should be vertical and horizontal in the sketch. And there's nothing that can be done in the software to solve me being able to rotate the view cube while I'm editing a sketch.

(edited for butchered formatting)

[janelson33]

I just like how Solidworks does it. I want more reliability. To me, if the software is always redoing a coordinate system when the global exists, and I have the option to make other UCS, that's just a waste, and thus unnecessary. I project the global origin to every sketch plane (an Inventor feature) and always try to design an global origin centered part, because it's usually just easier. I just want Inventor to realize what Solidworks does because it just make more sense.

I just can't see how this is more reliable than a universal coordinate system like Solidworks. Until Inventor stops losing sketch coordinate systems from what seem like very minimal modifications I just can't see the benefit to making a new coordinate system every time I make a sketch. I don't need another system unless I need it. 

It's also just mind-numbing to select the vertical or horizontal constraint to make a line horizontal/vertical and see that's not what the program is really thinking: surprise horizontal is vertical on the YZ Plane fool!