Removing Constraints in 2D Drawing

[ericroberts197]

In this drawing the soccer field is unable to be moved vertically. If I go to move and select the field and try to place it somewhere else on the page, I get the following error.



I've found that simply selecting all the field and clicking and dragging indicates that there is indeed a constraint that has fixed vertical movement. The questions is where is it, and how is it removed? I did not put this constraint in with design intent. I think it is that it automatically was applied in "object snapping". It appears that one of the upper corners of the rectangle is constrained to be colinear with the border midpoint, but I can't be sure.

If I click on a node I can see applied constraints, but I'm not seeing how to remove said constraints.

I've attached the drawing.

 

[OTE_TheMissile]

With the Sketch activated, you need to click Toggle Constraint Symbols under Sketch Options. That will add constraint icons to your Sketch that you can select and delete.

Now, finding the one that's giving you problems, that's the tricky part.

 

[ericroberts197]

With the Sketch activated, you need to click Toggle Constraint Symbols under Sketch Options. That will add constraint icons to your Sketch that you can select and delete.

Now, finding the one that's giving you problems, that's the tricky part.

Thanks for the reply;

This is a manually drawn figure in 2d Drawing ( with no 3D part association ). I don't see "toggle constraint symbols" anywhere in the ribbon under "2D sketch mode" or even "Sketch Options" for that matter?

 

[Max]

Right click the sheet area > Activate Sketch on Sheet

When you see the rest of the drawing figures that should be an option, unless your version doesn't support it.

 

[ericroberts197]

With the Sketch activated, you need to click Toggle Constraint Symbols under Sketch Options. That will add constraint icons to your Sketch that you can select and delete.

Now, finding the one that's giving you problems, that's the tricky part.

View attachment 35790

Yeah, I'm running Atom 3D - not design expert.

 

[Max]

Constraint symbols should be on by default. Do you find they are off?

 

[ericroberts197]

Right click the sheet area > Activate Sketch on Sheet

When you see the rest of the drawing figures that should be an option, unless your version doesn't support it.

My version is Atom 3D - v24.

I don't see this when I right click.

The work around was basically delete the entire sketch and start again... Is that the only path forward for this version?

 

[OTE_TheMissile]

I'm using an older version of Alibre on a weirdly square monitor so my ribbon/icons probably aren't the same as yours, but it should be there. Make sure your Sketch is active.

Also while you can draw from scratch, try to avoid it, mostly for just this kind of situation. Alibre bogs down pretty heavily when you put a lot of elements into one Sketch, and IME you start running into issues where old constraints can't be deleted, new constraints won't apply, and Sketch elements start to constrain themselves in weird ways that makes editing or even continuing with the Sketch impossible. And even when that isn't the case, it really doesn't take much constraining to get in the way of the Move tool.

If I were in your shoes, I would've modeled a simple rectangular box or plate the size of your field (and to some thickness, doesn't matter), then brought that in to the Drawing environment as a view and gone on sketching in the details from there. By having it as a view instead of sketching directly on the sheet, you can easily move it wherever and all of the Sketch entities will follow along with it.

That's how I draw these wiring diagrams for work, I have all of our electrical terminals as 3D models for illustrative purposes, but the lines representing wires connecting them all come from from using one or more of those connector views as my "Sketch view". That way I can keep everything compartmentalized and move them easily as needed, and my Sketches stay simple enough that the system doesn't get overwhelmed.

 

[ericroberts197]

Constraint symbols should be on by default. Do you find they are off?

I don't see any constraint symbols.

 

[ericroberts197]

I'm using an older version of Alibre on a weirdly square monitor so my ribbon/icons probably aren't the same as yours, but it should be there. Make sure your Sketch is active.

Also while you can draw from scratch, try to avoid it, mostly for just this kind of situation. Alibre bogs down pretty heavily when you put a lot of elements into one Sketch, and IME you start running into issues where old constraints can't be deleted, new constraints won't apply, and Sketch elements start to constrain themselves in weird ways that makes editing or even continuing with the Sketch impossible. And even when that isn't the case, it really doesn't take much constraining to get in the way of the Move tool.

If I were in your shoes, I would've modeled a simple rectangular box or plate the size of your field (and to some thickness, doesn't matter), then brought that in to the Drawing environment as a view and gone on sketching in the details from there. By having it as a view instead of sketching directly on the sheet, you can easily move it wherever and all of the Sketch entities will follow along with it.

That's how I draw these wiring diagrams for work, I have all of our electrical terminals as 3D models for illustrative purposes, but the lines representing wires connecting them all come from from using one or more of those connector views as my "Sketch view". That way I can keep everything compartmentalized and move them easily as needed, and my Sketches stay simple enough that the system doesn't get overwhelmed.

This is my ribbon when under "Activate 2D Sketch"

 

[OTE_TheMissile]

here, take a look at this to see what I mean about using a 3D model to work in a View on your drawing

 

[ericroberts197]

here, take a look at this to see what I mean about using a 3D model to work in a View on your drawing

Yeah, I see. Just use a "part view" and the drawing suite functions quite nicely. I can understand this issue as this is meant to be a 3D to 2D modeling software , not a stand alone 2D software.

Work around:
I have found that "making a copy" in the "Move" function breaks the undesired constraint. None of the dimensions are replicated in the process, but it is better than starting the sketch over from scratch.

 

[ericroberts197]

Maybe sketching should only work "in a view", but allow the user to create a "blank view" (without 3d part association). That seems like it would alleviate these types of issues, but may not be feasible.