{"id":251,"date":"2012-06-11T10:27:41","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T14:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/example.org\/sketches-that-enforce-proportion"},"modified":"2013-07-22T16:09:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-22T16:09:23","slug":"sketches-that-enforce-proportion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2012\/06\/sketches-that-enforce-proportion.html","title":{"rendered":"Sketches That Enforce Proportion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes a sketched feature is not intended to produce a particular dimension, so much as to create a chosen proportion.<\/p>\n<p>The most obvious way to enforce proportionality between any two dimensions in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solidworks.com\/sw\/products\/10141_ENU_HTML.htm?scid=sm_bl_CAPINCSketches\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"SolidWorks Premium\">SolidWorks<\/a> is to write an equation. Equations are powerful and useful, and they  have their place. But we also teach that geometric logic is more robust  and more automatic than numeric logic. There are plenty of times that  you want to enforce a design aesthetic, or capture a proportional  relation, that would benefit from solving dynamically inside the sketch  restraints, instead of through an equation. And this is usually done in  SolidWorks by way of dimensioning an ANGLE somewhere in the sketch.<\/p>\n<p>The Tangent of an angle is the proportion of the Rise divided by the  Run, so a fixed angle implies a fixed proportionality between the two  legs.&#0160; The only trick to this method is deciding where in your sketch,  the \u2018legs\u2019 of the triangle are, waiting to be used.<\/p>\n<p>Consider the sketch below \u2013 we have a half-ellipse, with a desired proportion that the height should always be 1\/3 the width.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"alignnone\" height=\"247\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.capinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Image-1-half-ellipse-sketch-with-proportion.png\" title=\"Image 1 half ellipse sketch with proportion\" width=\"395\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If we set the Height to be the desired value, (1.3333 currently),  then we add a construction line that documents that rise\/run angle.<\/p>\n<p>Dimension the angle as a DRIVING relation, and you can now set the H dimension to DRIVEN.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"alignnone\" height=\"273\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.capinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Image-2-half-ellipse-sketch-with-angle.png\" title=\"Image 2 half ellipse sketch with angle\" width=\"414\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now as you change the Width dimension W, the height will always  respond proportionately.&#0160; This is especially useful when creating  sketches that will used in either a SWEEP or LOFT feature, as this will  allow the sketch a degree of elasticity so that it can respond to Guide  Curve controls.<\/p>\n<p>More <a href=\"https:\/\/www.capinc.com\/support\/tips\/solidworks-tech-tips-sketching\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Sketching tech tips\">sketching tips &amp; tricks<\/a> are available on the CAPINC website.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***<\/p>\n<p>Keith Pedersen is a Principal Engineer at&#0160;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.capinc.com\/\" target=\"_self\">CAPINC<\/a>,  a SolidWorks Value Added Reseller with locations across New England. He is a regular  contributor to <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.capinc.com\/\" target=\"_self\">their CAPINC University blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes a sketched feature is not intended to produce a particular dimension, so much as to create a chosen proportion. The most obvious way to enforce proportionality between any two dimensions in SolidWorks is to write an equation. Equations are<\/p>\n... <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2012\/06\/sketches-that-enforce-proportion.html\">Continued<\/a>","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[379,19],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-solidworks","category-tips-tricks","tag-sketches","tag-solidworks-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}