Properties
Properties shows what is selected in the sketch: its name, its sizes, its position and the relations and dimensions that hold it. You can type a new size straight into it.
When to Use It
- Set the exact length, diameter, radius, width or height of a piece
- Set where a point or a piece sits, across and up from the sketch origin
- See which pieces can still move and which are fully defined
- Find and delete a relation or dimension
Step by Step
- Open a sketch and pick a piece or a point with Select. The Properties panel opens by itself a moment later on a wide screen; on a narrow screen click Properties on the right rail.
- Read the top of the panel: the part number and description of the model, then (for a model opened from a part file) what the file says about the part.
- Under Selected, each picked piece is listed. Click the x beside one to drop it from the selection.
- Under Properties, type a new value in a box and press Enter. Esc puts the old value back.
- Under Relations, click a row to light the pieces it ties, or click the x to delete it.
What You Can Set
- A line: Length, and Start and End across and up.
- A circle: Diameter and Centre. An arc: Radius and Centre.
- A four cornered outline: Width, Height and First corner.
- A point: Position across and up.
- Construction: tick it to make the piece a guide that is not cut or extruded.
- A reference to the part (a piece that follows a part edge) shows no boxes: it cannot be moved or resized here.
Reading the List of Pieces
Each piece has a coloured dot and one plain line: blue can still move, black is fully defined, red is over defined, orange is construction and grey is a reference to the part. A line at the top says how defined the whole sketch is.
Tips
- Pieces tied by relations follow the size you type.
- A relation set aside because a part edge could not be found is listed under its own heading; fix or delete it there.
- The panel is not redrawn while you type in one of its boxes, so a half typed size is never lost.
Problems
- "Open a sketch and select a piece..." The panel only shows sketch properties while a sketch is open.
- A value does not change. Another relation or dimension already fixes it: the list below names it.