DesignSpark Mechanical - Basics - 3. Sketching - Full tutorial Video Lecture | Design Sparks Tutorial: Become Design Master - 3D & Animation

when starting on a new design the first
step will usually be to sketch a 2d
shape this shape will ultimately be
developed into a 3d model in the tool
bar you'll see that the sketch tools are
grouped together and within the sketch
tools section the ones to the left are
creation tools and the ones to the right
are for modifying let's start by
sketching a rectangle
notice that when sketching you will be
offered relevant tool guides in the
design window as well as options in the
panel to the left for example you can
select to create a rectangle from its
center instead of pulling it from one
corner to another when creating the
shape you'll see the dimensions you can
simply drag to a size or set these by
typing in values and tabbing to move
between the two axes when you are happy
just press ENTER to set the shape and
escape to end sketching you will see the
lines you just created now appear in the
structure tree on the left also
as you hover the cursor over parts of
the sketch you'll see that as well as
snapping to the grid the Snap feature
will snap to lines midpoints and end
points you may find sketching easier
when looking at the grid face on to
achieve this simply click on plan view
either in the top toolbar or the mini
sketch toolbar at the bottom of the
screen
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let's now add a circle once again click
and drag to create it and then you can
choose to enter a dimension
if we add another circle you will see
that the software will indicate when the
two circles are the same diameter
allowing you to choose that size press
escape to end sketching or just go to
select mode now we'll create a rectangle
notice how a guideline is offered to
allow you to create a square if you wish
as before you can drag the rectangle to
size or you can type and tab to enter
dimensions don't worry about overlaying
one line with another this won't cause a
problem if we now add a similar
rectangle on the other side of the
sketch you will see that the software
indicates when the two shapes are the
same height this can be helpful for
accurate sketching for symmetrical
designing however there is another
useful method
if we add a construction line vertically
between midpoints we can right click and
make it into a mirror line while this
mirror line is active anything we sketch
on one side of the shape will appear
automatically on the other side now as
we modify the sketch the changes will
appear in both sides of the shape
we'll draw a line to alter the bottom
corner of the sketch notice in the
option panel lines can be drawn using
either polar or carter's our methods
simply select your preferred option
before or during creation of the line
to finish the modification let's trim
away the lines we don't need the trim
lines tool is one of the sketch tools in
the modify section of the sketch toolbar
area notice when in trim mode that
hovering over lines will show them as
segmented highlighting just the part of
the line which will be trimmed in normal
select mode the whole line will
highlight when we hover over it all the
changes have now been applied to both
sides of the sketch if we want to resume
designing without symmetry just
right-click the mirror line and turn it
off any new features now added will
appear only where they are drawn if we
add another circle we can use another
feature to help position it accurately
by hovering over a line or in this case
a curve point and tapping the shift key
dimensions from that point will be
displayed meaning we can carefully
control the placement of the new
geometry
if we want to move a feature such as the
circle we just added we can use select
to grab the center point and drag it to
a new position this is useful for
creative work but if accurate control is
needed it is better to use the move tool
this tool is often used when developing
3d models but is also useful for
modifying sketches using the move tool
gives the option to define a dimension
for the change in position
using control select we can move
multiple features in this way
bear in mind also that points and lines
can be selected and moved to
once you are happy with your 2d sketch
you can change to 3d mode this can be
done either using the mode select tool
in the top toolbar or by going to pull
mode and pulling the shape up into a
solid
any closed boundary sketches will
convert into surfaces which can be
developed into 3d if you have drawn
lines which overlay each other this will
not cause a problem when switching from
2d sketch to 3d model the new solid will
ignore the duplication and the shape
will form without a problem the
techniques covered here should give you
enough awareness to get started with
sketching
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