- [Instructor] New in SolidWorks 2018,
we now have the shaded sketch contour.
This gives us the ability to quickly tell
whether or not we have open or closed contours.
Now, by default, this feature should be on,
but in case it isn't on, you can see here
I'm in a sketch and I've created a couple entities.
I'm going to go up to Tools, Sketch Settings,
and turn on Shaded Sketch Contours.
Now you notice when I click that, it now
shaded the inner contours of these closed contours.
And that's really what it's all about,
is showing you you have a closed contour.
Now you can see if I drag one of these over
the other, it gets darker, showing that this
is also a closed contour, and that kind of
multiplies as you stack up your various contours.
It will get darker and darker to indicate that
there is a shaded sketch contour on top of another contour.
Now if I didn't have any of these
and I was just working with open and
closed contours, you can have boxes,
circles,
and polygons,
as well as any other closed contour.
So I'm going to go ahead and just sketch some
random lines really quick and just close them up.
Now, you can see these are all shaded, closed contours.
Now, if I delete one of these entities and
open that contour back up, I lose the shading.
Now this can be really handy if you have a
contour that's very complex and you can't tell
if it's actually closed or open.
Another good thing that you can do is
right click on this part and go Select Chain,
this is going to show you where the contour begins and ends.
So using those tools together, you can find out
whether or not you have an open or closed contour.
Now, if you don't like this option,
what can happen is, by selecting on this, I can
now drag the whole contour over the whole entity.
I don't have to select on the entity itself.
So I can use the mill point or the entity
to drag or I can just select that shaded contour
and drag it around to a different position if I like.
Now that can be a pain if you're trying to select
through entities, for example, so let's say
I want to select this line back here.
I could select it, but if I'm not quite on it,
I might select the shaded contour instead.
If I want to turn these off, I just go back up to
Tools, Sketch Settings, and de-select
Shaded Sketch Contours and all of my contours went away.
This is a very powerful tool, again, to check
whether you have open or closed contours.
You will only see the shaded contour
when it's actually closed.