SolidWorks 2011 Parts Bible - Matt Lombard [49]
Figure 3.15
Using the Corner option
• Trim away inside. Trims away selected entities inside a selected boundary. The boundary may consist of a pair of sketch entities or a model face (edges of the face are used as the boundary). Only entities that cross both selected boundaries (or cross the closed loop of the face boundary twice) can be trimmed. This option does not trim a closed loop such as a circle, ellipse, or closed spline.
• Trim away outside. Functions exactly like the Trim away inside option, except that sketch entities outside of the boundary are discarded. The Trim away inside and Trim away outside options are illustrated in Figure 3.16.
Figure 3.16
Using the Trim away inside and Trim away outside options
• Trim to closest. This is the default setting. Clicking a sketch entity will:
• Trim it back to the next entity if there is only one crossing entity
• Trim between two crossing entities if there is more than one
• Delete the entity if there are no crossing entities
In all cases, the selected section of the entity is removed. The Trim to closest option can also extend when you drag one entity to another; if an intersection is possible, the first entity is extended to the second entity. Figure 3.17 illustrates how the Trim to closest option functions.
Figure 3.17
Using Trim to closest to extend
The Construction Geometry tool toggles between regular sketch entities and construction entities. Construction sketch entities are not used to create solid or surface faces directly; they are only used for reference — for example, revolve centerlines, extrude and pattern directions, and so forth. Be careful with the icon for this function, because it looks almost identical to the No Solve Move icon, especially as printed here in gray scale.
Note
The icons for Hide/Show Edges, No Solve Move, and Construction Geometry look substantially similar, and in this black and white book they may be indistinguishable.
The Stretch sketch tool is intended for use in sketches where there are enough dimensions to make a particular change difficult by changing dimensions only. It is similar in purpose and use to the AutoCAD Stretch function because it was loosely modeled after the AutoCAD functionality. Stretch enables you to specify a change that will change several dimensions simultaneously. Figure 3.18 shows the initial, intermediate, and final states of the sketch being stretched.
FIGURE 3.18
Using the Stretch sketch tool
Tip
The main ideas to remember with the Stretch tool are that it is used to stretch dimensioned lines, and that you need to select the lines that will lengthen or shorten as well as the lines that will move. Because of this, selecting entities for Stretch is best done with the right-to-left window selection, which also selects any items that the selection box crosses. (Left-to-right window selection only selects items that are completely within the selection box.)
Caution
Figure 3.18 shows the X/Y option being used, but if you use the From/To option, be aware that it may unexpectedly delete some sketch relations.
The Move, Rotate, Copy, and Scale sketch tools operate on selections within a sketch. You can use these tools with pre- or post-selection methods. These tools delete existing sketch relations when necessary to accomplish the task. For example, if you want to move a rectangle connected to the origin, the Move tool will delete the Coincident relation between the sketch endpoint and the origin. If you want to rotate a rectangle, the Rotate tool will delete all the horizontal and vertical relations on the entities being rotated. This operation may result in a completely underdefined sketch. SolidWorks does not warn you that sketch relations are being deleted.
If you use the Scale tool on a fully defined sketch, SolidWorks will scale the position