Sketcher Best Practices
Posted on Dec 12th, 2006When you create a sketch, you should always use a Datum Axis as the horizontal and vertical references. The attachment plane should be a datum plane but it could be attached to a face if you don’t mind the dependency. Why would you use a Datum Axis for the horizontal and vertical reference? Datum Axis give you a direction. So when you reattach a sketch, copy paste into a new file, or in a UDF the dimensions will not flip unexpected on you. I have been burned a few times because of this. I used to use Datum planes as the Horizontal and vertical, never again. A csys will accomplish the same thing as long as you pick the axis when associating the dimensions.
Im used to that way of working way back to 1995 when working on Pro/E. This method is best for all CAD systems with this functionality, e.g. SolidWorks, Solid Edge and other too.
In theory, you should consider to first create your datum plane or axis first, like a skeleton. This enables you to remove and recreate a lot of features without thinking about too much references.