Model Tree: Edit Feature and Edit Sketch
Edit Feature reopens a step you already made so you can change its numbers, without picking the faces or edges again. Edit Sketch reopens the drawing behind a step so you can change its shape. Use them instead of deleting a step and starting over.
Step by Step: Edit Feature
- Open the Model panel and find the step.
- Right-click it and choose Edit Feature, or double-click the step.
- The step's boxes open inside its row. Change what you need.
- Click Apply, or press Enter. The whole part rebuilds from that step on.
- Press Esc to leave the step as it was.
If nothing changed, Apply just closes the boxes and nothing rebuilds.
Step by Step: Edit Sketch
- Right-click a step that has a sketch (an extrude, a cut or a revolve) and choose Edit Sketch. You can also open the step with its arrow and double-click its sketch.
- The part shows as it was just before that step, and the sketch opens on its plane. The top of the Model panel says "Editing the sketch of" and the step's name.
- Change the shape with Select or Node, or by typing dimensions, as in any sketch.
- Click Update step in the Model panel. The step is rebuilt with the new shape.
- Click Cancel to throw the change away. The message reads "Edit canceled; the history is unchanged."
What Each Step Lets You Change
| Step | Boxes in its row |
|---|---|
| Extrude, Cut | Width and Height (or Diameter for a circle), Keep lower-left corner or Keep center, End condition (Blind, Up To Next, Up To Surface), Depth, Direction 2, Thin Feature, Flip side to cut, and Merge result on an extrude |
| Revolve | The same size boxes, and Angle (more than 0 and at most 360 degrees) |
| Round, Chamfer | Round or Chamfer, the size, and for a chamfer Equal distance, Angle-Distance or Distance-Distance with Flip direction |
| Shell | Inward or Outward, and the wall thickness |
| Hole | The kind (Hole, Counterbore, Countersink, Tapped), every size and the end condition |
| Thread | The size, None, and the thread depth |
| Scale | Percent, To height or To width, and About the center or About the origin |
| Draft | The angle, and Reverse Direction |
| Rib | The thickness, First Side, Both Sides or Second Side, Parallel to Sketch or Normal to Sketch, and which side the material goes |
| Combine | The Main body |
| Sweep, Loft | The profile diameter, the orientation and the twist |
| Move/Copy Bodies | The number of copies, from 1 to 100 |
| Parts Library part | The Typical radii |
Each of these steps has the same boxes on its own page, such as Hole or Extrude and Cut.
Tips
- Typing a new Width or Height resizes a part after you extrude it. You do not need to reopen its sketch. While you type, an orange outline shows the new size on the part.
- A shape with arcs keeps its proportions, so typing the width works out the height. The row says "Has arcs, so width and height change together."
- A step that other steps are built on (a pattern or a mirror) updates them when you edit it.
- Every edit goes on the Undo list. See Undo and Redo.
If Something Goes Wrong
- "<Step> has nothing to retype. Delete it and make it again to change it." That kind of step has no numbers to edit.
- "The step needs one closed shape or outline. Draw it, or Cancel." The edited sketch is not closed. Close it, or click Cancel.
- "Type a positive depth." and "Type an angle more than 0 and at most 360 degrees." Fix the number and click Apply again.
- "Both ways cannot be used with Up To Next or Up To Surface. Choose Forward or Backward first."
- "Click the face to end on first (Pick face)." Up To Surface needs a face.
- "An older version is showing. Go back to the current one to change a step." Edits only work on the newest version.
- A size that does not fit is refused with the reason, and the part stays as it was.