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Basic Concepts of Parametric Sketching | 43
Basic Concepts of Parametric Sketching
You create, constrain, and edit sketches to define a
■ Profile that governs the shape of your part or feature
■ Location for a bend feature in a part design
■ Path for your profile to follow
■ Cut line to define section views
■ Split line to split a face or part
■ Break line to define breakout section views
After you create a rough sketch with lines, polylines, arcs, circles, and ellipses
to represent a feature, you solve the sketch. Solving a sketch creates a para-
metric profile, path, cut line, split line, or break line from your sketched
geometry.
When you solve a sketch, Mechanical Desktop converts it to a parametric
sketch by applying two-dimensional constraints to it, according to internal
rules. This reduces the number of dimensions and constraints you need to
fully constrain it. In general, a sketch should be fully constrained before it is
used to create a feature.
You can control the shape and size of the parametric sketch throughout mul-
tiple design revisions.
In this tutorial, you learn to create and solve sketches. Chapter 7, “Constrain-
ing Sketches,” introduces you to creating, modifying, and deleting the con-
straints and parametric dimensions that control a sketch.