CAD Forum

We are using 3d sketch to design piping routes for our machines.
during the design stage it would be useful to import fittings, valves etc as a simplified sketch block(for tee is like 2 lines inside the block).
importing those blocks is simple but orienting them in a 3d sketch is an hassle. e.g. sketch constraint cannot be inverted like mates or the sketch block is always parallel to its plane (XY)
I am looking for a simple manner to manipulate blocks an position them as I want.

Open to suggestions and thanks in advance.

Have you tried adding the 3d planes inside the 3d sketch and placing the blocks on them or adding constrains between block and those 3d planes?

Have you looked into SolidWorks Routing? It sounds like exactly what you're doing.

Kevin Moss wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 10:56 am Have you looked into SolidWorks Routing? It sounds like exactly what you're doing.

yes, we tried routing: it requires a premium licence, it is quite unpolished and unsupported (even our var was quite blunt about how few they know about routing) , and it is incompatible with our workflows, pdm and huge library of legacy data. Also routing is not our main activity and it is not worth all the complications it would introduce.

So we decided to develop our own tool and workflow as many things can be done without routing.
About this sketch issue I am also thinkIng about a macro that rotates a sketch block around x,y,z by 90 degrees increments...but I want to try other ways too. the simpler the better.

mp3-250 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 29, 2023 11:29 am We are using 3d sketch to design piping routes for our machines.
during the design stage it would be useful to import fittings, valves etc as a simplified sketch block(for tee is like 2 lines inside the block).
importing those blocks is simple but orienting them in a 3d sketch is an hassle. e.g. sketch constraint cannot be inverted like mates or the sketch block is always parallel to its plane (XY)
I am looking for a simple manner to manipulate blocks an position them as I want.

Open to suggestions and thanks in advance.

I import them as bodies and then use the body geometry to help drive my 3d Sketch. Seems simpler to me.

Then, as the final step to the feature tree, I do a body delete and remove all the bodies.

When I did that kind of work in NX, coordinate systems were indispensable. I don't know how functional they are in your version of solidworks, but they could offer other options.

https://help.solidworks.com/2023/englis ... 41c53d#Pg0

Thank you for the suggestions, I think I am going to try with a macro to rotate the block around their insertion point in X, Y or Z. Setting up a temporary plane or import bodies takes too much effort and time compared to the current workflow.
The main 3D sketch has the origin and the CSYS coincident to the assembly so apparently there is not need to transform sketch CSYS to WCS and stuff.

If you draw XY dashed lines inside the block, when inserted in a 3D sketch you can orient each line of the block along X, Y, Z, or make perpendicular to any other line