- If you have a pen or touch device like a Centiq Tablet
or maybe a laptop with a touch screen,
you have the ability to use this sketch ink toolbar.
Then you can then take a sketch and use it
as construction geometry or as a reference sketch
for other things you might be doing
in your SOLIDWORKS design.
So right here I've got the start of a sketch
that I kind of came up with and I can come over here
and grab my draw tool, come down here
and you know, maybe continue on this design.
So I've got it in red, so if you might want to switch
over to a different color, go back to the blue color here,
maybe continue some lines here in the back of this design.
Maybe work on some of this stuff with a waterline
of the spout.
Or whatever you are going to need here, you know,
basically add some things in here
that can kind of makes it look cool for your design.
Now once you're done making these adjustments, right?
Or designing this sketch.
Then just go ahead exit out of that sketch
and notice it's right here on your toolbar.
So of course you can hide it so it's a reference sketch.
You can show it again, right?
And notice this sketch here is on the front plane.
So you can go ahead and start a brand new sketch
right on top of that, right?
So this is a reference, here's a new sketch.
So you're just seeing this.
And if you don't want to see it of course, just hide it.
But then what we can start doing is creating some lines.
So right now we're kind of in an isometric view.
So you probably wouldn't entirely design just like this,
but just want to give you, you know, an example
of how you might create like a spline on top of this.
So if you go over here to spline.
You know, I'm just going to kind of click here and click there.
And then hit escape on your keyboard.
And now you have this spline here.
You can move it around.
You might want to add in some of the lines,
so let's do that one more time here.
Let's click here and click here and maybe one more.
And then these points you can drag them around.
So if you want to adjust that curve.
You can put that point over here and then, you know,
you can play with all these things and then
just kind of use it as a reference.
You might want to add in another point.
Whatever you want to do there.
This could be used for this line down here if you wanted.
You know, so then you can then drag that point,
but you're basically trying to say
'Hey, what kind of creations can I use
or what kind of lines can I use as a reference
for the back there?'
So again there's a lot of things that you can do.
You know, if these aren't the right lines,
which those aren't perfect obviously.
So maybe it's a straight line.
You start from a line here, it's a straight line,
and then transition over into a tangency line right?
So you tangent from here to here
and then maybe it's up here.
So that's probably a little bit better, right?
So you've got a straight line.
And you're just using the sketch in the back
as a reference.
Now if you're done with that, go ahead right click on it
and say hide.
Now that's gone and you only had that the new sketch you've
kind of laid down on top of that.
So this is also great way if you're bringing in a picture
or some other line art something like that
from a reference design.
You can then use that in your sketch here.
But if you do have a tablet or a pen device,
you can just create the sketches right in SOLIDWORKS.
And they're just stored in your design
right from the beginning.
So bunch of things you can do there
and definitely take a look at the sketching toolbar
to play with those tools.