About the Section User Interface

The Sketch user interface consists of section icons, dialog boxes, commands, tabs, and shortcut menus. There are different ways to enter the Sketch environment for sketch-based features:

• Select a datum plane or planar surface, and then click a tool for a sketch-based feature. The Sketch tab opens.

• Open a tool for a sketch-based feature, click the Sketch collector, and click Define. The Sketch dialog box opens.

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—Indicates a section for a sketched-based feature. Note that the section is always indented within the sketch-based feature. You may need to expand the sketch-based feature to view the section.

The following dialog boxes inform you about a section or enable you to create or redefine a section for a sketch-based feature:

• Sketch—Enables you to use Sketcher to create an independent section or to redefine an independent or a dependent section.

• Section Selection—Opens if you are using a Sketch feature to create a sketch-based feature. The following two types of Section Selection dialog boxes can open:

◦ Warns that you have selected a Sketch feature that will replace the existing section. If you click OK, the system deletes the existing section and creates a new section based on the data from the selected Sketch feature. Note that this warning displays only if you are working with a sketch-based feature that uses an independent section and you select a (parent) Sketch feature (in the Model Tree) to use as the new reference for the section. This results in a dependent section.

◦ Warns that you have selected a Sketch feature that cannot be referenced fully. In this case, the system uses Use Edge technology to acquire the necessary sketch geometry for the section. This situation may occur if you are using sketch-based features from previous Pro/ENGINEER releases.

• Unlink—Informs that you are about to break the association between the dependent section and the parent Sketch feature. After you click OK, the system copies the references from the parent Sketch feature and creates an independent section. You can then change this section without changing the Sketch feature. You must click Unlink on the tab to display this dialog box.

In some sketch-based feature tools such as Fill, Pattern, and Intersect, the following section user interface element is displayed on the tab:

• Sketch collector—Indicates that a valid Sketch feature has been selected for the sketch-based feature. You can use Remove from the shortcut menu (pointer in the collector) to remove the indicator. The corresponding section reference in the tab collector is also removed.

You can use the following sketch-based feature tabs to redefine sections or to obtain section and parent Sketch feature information. Remember that the sketch-based feature tool must be open to access tabs.

◦ Sketch collector—Contains the section references for the sketch-based feature. The collector can contain dependent or independent sections. Note that a dependent section has the same name as its parent Sketch feature. The system assigns unique names to independent sections. The No Items label in the collector indicates that the sketch-based feature tool was opened without defining a section.

▪ Remove—Removes the section from the collector and removes the corresponding indicator from the tab collector in tools that display this tab collector.

◦ Define button—Opens the Sketch dialog box enabling you to use Sketcher to define an independent section. Note that Define is available only if the Sketch collector is empty (no section defined or sketch selected). You can also use the Define Internal Sketch shortcut menu command from the graphics window.

◦ Edit button—Opens the Sketch dialog box enabling you to use Sketcher to redefine the independent section. Note that Edit is available only for sketch-based features that use an independent section. If you want to edit a dependent section, you can either edit the parent sketch or break the section dependency by using Unlink. You can also use the Edit Internal Sketch shortcut menu command from the graphics window.

◦ Unlink button—Breaks the association between the dependent section and the parent Sketch feature. The system copies the Sketch feature references to the new independent section. Note that Unlink is available only if the sketch-based feature uses a dependent section.

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—Displays detailed sketch-based component information in a browser. The following tables pertain to sections:

▪ Parents—Contains the parent Sketch feature name. Note that a parent Sketch feature is listed only for sketch-based features that use dependent sections. If you open a sketch-based feature tool and create an independent section, this table will not list a parent Sketch feature because one does not exist.

▪ Children—Lists the child features. This includes child sketch-based features. Dependent sections are not listed here.

While a sketch-based feature tool is open, place your pointer anywhere in the graphics window except over a handle and right-click to access shortcut menu commands.

• Define Internal Sketch—Opens the Sketch tab enabling you to use Sketcher to define an independent section.

• Edit Internal Sketch—Opens the Sketch tab enabling you to use Sketcher to redefine an independent section. Note that the sketch-based feature tool must be open and you must be working with an independent section.

While a sketch-based feature tool closed, select a section in the Model Tree and right-click the graphics window to access shortcut menu commands.

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Edit—Changes only the section dimensions for the sketch-based feature. Note that for dependent sections, the parent Sketch feature dimensions also change.

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Edit Definition—Opens the Sketch tab enabling you to redefine the section. Note that for dependent sections, The system rolls back to the parent Sketch feature. Therefore, all changes are applied to the parent Sketch feature and then copied to the dependent section.