2011

Thus, there are two general methods for designing with constraints:
■ You can work in an underconstrained drawing and make changes as you
go, using a combination of editing commands, grips, and adding or
changing constraints.
■ You can create and fully constrain a drawing first, and then control the
design exclusively by relaxing and replacing geometric constraints, and
changing the values in dimensional constraints.
The method that you choose depends on your design practices and the
requirements of your discipline.
NOTE The program prevents you from applying any constraints that result in an
overconstrained condition.
Remove or Relax Constraints
There are two ways to cancel the effects of constraints when you need to make
design changes:
■ Delete the constraints individually and later apply new constraints. While
the cursor hovers over a geometric constraint icon, you can use the Delete
key or the shortcut menu to delete the constraint.
■ Relax the constraints temporarily on selected objects to make the changes.
With a grip selected or when you specify options during an editing
command, tap the Ctrl key to alternate between relaxing constraints and
maintaining constraints.
Relaxed constraints are not maintained during editing. Constraints are restored
automatically if possible when the editing process is complete. Constraints
that are no longer valid are removed.
NOTE The DELCONSTRAINT command deletes all geometric and dimensional
constraints from an object.
Quick Reference
AUTOCONSTRAIN
Applies geometric constraints to a selection set of objects based on orientation
of the objects relative to one another.
Overview of Constraints | 369