Rotate sketch figures using constraints.

[Ken226]

A user in the General Discussion subforum was wondering how to go about rotating a sketch in Atom, as it doesn't have the move/rotate button that Design has.

While it is better to create your sketch in the right place and angle from the beginning, sometimes you may need the ability to rotate a pre-existing sketch. Here is one way to make it happen without the move/rotate tool:

It certainly helps to keep the sketch simple.

 

[HaroldL]

That's a good tip for a simple sketch. You know that you can edit the rotation angle in the Equation Editor (EE) so you won't have to edit the sketch. In this example you only have one angle dimension so it will likely appear in the EE as A1. Just open the EE with Ctrl+E, find parameter A1, double click on the parameter to edit it, tab out of the field and select Okay. You need to be careful though if you have any other features added, holes, extrudes, etc. Make sure they are not constrained to the default geometry or have vertical or horizontal constraints that would prevent the model from rotating, that could really mess up a model.

If you turn on Show Equations in the File Properties>Dimension then the dimension name will be displayed in the sketch so you can more easily find it in the EE. You can also rename the dimensions in the EE if you have a lot of them and you want to have some control over a few. In v24 you can also set them as Favorites for sorting.

 

[Ken226]

That's a good tip for a simple sketch. You know that you can edit the rotation angle in the Equation Editor (EE) so you won't have to edit the sketch. In this example you only have one angle dimension so it will likely appear in the EE as A1. Just open the EE with Ctrl+E, find parameter A1, double click on the parameter to edit it, tab out of the field and select Okay. You need to be careful though if you have any other features added, holes, extrudes, etc. Make sure they are not constrained to the default geometry or have vertical or horizontal constraints that would prevent the model from rotating, that could really mess up a model.

If you turn on Show Equations in the File Properties>Dimension then the dimension name will be displayed in the sketch so you can more easily find it in the EE. You can also rename the dimensions in the EE if you have a lot of them and you want to have some control over a few. In v24 you can also set them as Favorites for sorting.

That's good to know. Thanks.

It's been awhile since I used Atom so I don't remember. Does it have an equation editor?

 

[HaroldL]

In the Help it is one of the sections that does not have any "flags" to indicate which flavor of Alibre it is included in. So it should be.

 

[DavidJ]

Yes Atom3D does have the Equation Editor.

 

[Ken226]

The circular pattern tool also works for rotating a sketch, you just have to delete the original sketch figures after doing it.

Select all of the figures you want to rotate, select the center of the sketch, enter 2 for the number of occurances, then enter the desired angle.