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(continued...) Options in the Property Manager include specifying which types of relations should be applied, whether a chain, baseline or ordinate dimension scheme is appropriate and datums for horizontal and vertical dimensions using existing entity points or lines but not planes as would be familiar to users of Pro/Engineer.
This can of course lead to a sketch which is not fully defined as although all entities can be defined to each other, the whole sketch is not defined in space and still needs to be referenced to a coordinate system origin or existing model geometry.
The usability of blocks and sketches has been enhanced in the sketch environment with the ability to change their origin and orientation to be aligned to existing entities.
All entities within a block can also be toggled between normal and construction geometry.
A significant addition is the traction relation that creates rotation constraints between blocks that contain circles and lines allowing simulation of gears and rack and pinion motion.
The Belt / Chain command creates tangent lines and arcs into a continuous belt around circular sketch blocks with the option to toggle the belt route around the correct side of each circle.
Belt length can be determined by pulley location or known belt dimensions in which case idler positions are automatically defined provided at least one pulley has an adequate degree of freedom.
A similar Belt / Chain assembly feature is available to create 3D belts which can be dragged to rotate each pulley at the correct ratio and the Rack and Pinion mate translates a linear motion to the correct rotation of another part.
Gear ratios can also be specified by applying a gear mate between cylindrical faces or circular edges.
Cam motions are created in sketches using blocks of sketch entities and the Make Path tool which can again be manipulated dynamically to analyse the resultant travel.