Leader Text in a Model Sketch

[Cadmanto]

In all of the years I have used Inventor, first time I believe actually wanting what I am suggesting.

I have an application where I want to label certain center lines.  Basically creating a skeletal sketch within the sketch of the model.  As not to confuse what I am creating I thought it would be nice to be able to label what each center line represents without Inventor thinking I am creating another profile for a feature.  So, why not have the ability to just place a leader like we do in a drawing.

[jtylerbc]

You can almost do something like this using the 3D Annotation leader note.  It's not part of the sketch, but can tie to sketch geometry.

Unfortunately, it only really works reasonably if it's a sketch that will stay visible.  Otherwise you have annotations that point to nothing and look silly.  Also, you can't actually see the annotations while you're in the sketch, so they don't really work that well as a "key" for the geometry in the sketch. 

I've used it a couple of times to make notes to myself temporarily, but always have ended up deleting them later because it's just messy.  Some sort of ability to put notations into sketches could be really helpful in more complex models, especially Frame Generator or multibody layout parts.