Tutorials PartCraft help Walkthroughs
Change sizes without opening the sketch
Drive a part from the numbers in the right panel: sketch dimensions, depths, counts and angles, how to plan a part so the right numbers drive it, and where parameters and equations take over.
Written for PartCraft 0.3. The same help is inside the app: press F1.
Every size in a PartCraft part is a number you can change later: the dimensions in its sketches and the settings of its features. You do not need to open a sketch to change its dimensions.
Change a sketch dimension from the panel
- Click a feature in the history, for example "Extrude1".
- Under the extrude's own settings, Sketch dimensions (Sketch1) lists every dimension of its sketch: "Distance", "Diameter", "Angle (°)" and so on.
- Type a new value in one box and press ReturnEnter or TabTab.
The sketch solves with the new value, and the whole part rebuilds. Selecting the sketch itself shows the same list as Driving dimensions.
A radius or diameter must be more than zero, and an angle is between 0 and 180 degrees; the status bar says so if not.
The numbers that drive a part
| Where | What you can change |
|---|---|
| Sketch | Every dimension: lengths, distances, radii, diameters, angles |
| Extrude and Cut | Depth, end condition, direction, boss or cut |
| Revolve and revolved cut | Angle, axis, boss or cut |
| Hole | Diameter, depth, through all, counterbore diameter and depth |
| Fillet, Chamfer, Shell | Radius, distance, wall thickness and direction, and which edges or faces |
| Linear and Circular | Count, spacing or angle, direction or axis |
| Part | Curves (how finely round shapes are faceted) |
| Drawing | Where the section cuts, the detail's size and scale, GD&T values |
Plan the part so the right numbers drive it
The numbers you give are the ones you can change. A few habits make later changes behave:
- Dimension what matters for the job. If a hole must stay 15 mm from an edge, dimension it from that edge, not from the origin.
- Fully define sketches. Then a change moves only what it should (see Fully define a sketch).
- Use relations for intent. Equal on two holes means one diameter drives both. Symmetric shapes: put the origin on the center line, or use Midpoint.
- Sketch on faces made by features. A sketch on an extrude's end face moves when the depth changes.
- Pattern instead of copying. One hole patterned eight times has one diameter to change.
Beyond single numbers
- One number driving several: use parameters and equations: Drive a part with parameters.
- Several sizes of one part: use a design table (the CSV stays beside the part; it is not saved inside it yet).
- Arithmetic in a number box: type
=40/2or=width / 2. That makes an equation; see Equations both ways. - Inch units: the part shows millimeters. In a number box with
=, or in a parameter,2inis turned into 50.8.