- [Instructor] So far in this course
we've looked at 2D sketching for the
majority of the topics we've covered.
In this video we're going to take a look at 3D sketching
and how we can leverage it to do things like framing,
weldments, and other complex geometry.
So, to start you simply go up yo the Command ribbon
where the Sketch button is, hit the dropdown
and you see 3D Sketch.
Now, unlike a 2D sketch it doesn't prompt you
to pick a plane or anything like that.
You just simply pick a starting point out in space.
Now, it can be hard to get your orientation
when doing 3D sketching, so I generally like
to start at the origin and build out from there.
One thing you'll notice if you look at my cursor
is now right below it you'll see it says "XY."
What this is telling us is you're
sketching 3D in the XY plane.
It's always going to be in some orientation
and in some plane when it sketches,
and this is how you know what orientation you're in.
So, I'm going to click here, drag up,
and I'm just going to make a simple frame.
(clicks)
Now, I'm not sure if this is exactly square.
It doesn't look like it is, I want this to snap
along the X axis, so while I've got it highlighted
I'm going to go over to the Properties and hit Along X,
and now you can see that rounds that out.
If I want to I can go in here and add some dimensions,
so I'm going to hit Smart Dimension,
double check that I got that 90 there.
I can give it a length, (clicks) give it a height,
and all the normal things that I do in a sketch.
If I want to keep sketching out I can simply click back
on that origin, but instead of working in the XY
I'm going to hit the Tab key and this
is going to reorient me in another plane.
So, now I'm in the YZ plane going out from a structure.
(clicks)
So, you can see that already I can
build some interesting shapes in 3D.
Now, if I want to go from, you know,
one point to another in the middle of random space
what you often have to do is have something
like a point already there, like this one,
select it and then drag it out to another point.
Now, while that's in YZ you can see that it kind of
spanned in 3D across the other planes.
So, this can get pretty complex really quickly,
and as you can see, it can get a little weird
looking at it and knowing your orientation.
So, always pay attention to what your cursor says.
I just want to share two other examples really quick.
In this one I've already done
a 3D sketch of a general frame.
If I want to turn this into a weldment now,
for example, I can go down, select my Weldments,
Structural Member, and just start selecting items.
Oh, that's a little bit big, let's go smaller,
(clicks)
and framing up different sections of weldment.
Now, generally when you're working with weldments,
you know, you can't go around in multiple directions.
So, you can do, like, one box at a time,
select new group, and then work on
another part of the frame, for example.
(clicks)
And when trying to make complex structures
I like to use this example of this 3D logo that I made.
If you look at this spiral this is a really
complex surface that I made, and I used 3D sketches
to actually build up a structure
that I was then able to add points to.
So, you can get a better visual of it right there.
(clicks)
And then what that was able to give me
was another 3D sketch that I could make a surface on.
So, you can see there the 3D sketch that I created,
and that's a pretty complex line geometry there,
but I was able to use all the anchor points
from the other 3D sketch and then just do
an easy fill surface and create a
really nice, complex set of geometry.
Took a little while to make all the points,
but in the end it's pretty simple to do.
So, again, 3D sketching can be very powerful.
You just want to make sure that you pay attention to,
you know, your different orientations and remember
that you can hit the Tab key to alternate through.
One last thing that I'd like to share is that your Trim key,
if you're trying to use Power Trim like you would
in other sketches you're not going to be able to.
You can only trim out a whole section at a time,
or drag a section to meet another section
at a different part of the 3D sketch.