Fixing sketches with SketchXpert

How many times have you been working on a sketch in SOLIDWORKS, when all of a sudden everything turns red and yellow? What is your typically response to seeing that feedback? Hitting undo, or even scrapping the sketch and starting over. Seeing the red and yellow appear often means your sketch became over-defined. But it’s not always immediately clear what caused it to happen. Thankfully there is a tool in SOLIDWORKS that can help quickly fix an over-defined a sketch.

Say hello to the SketchXpert! The SketchXpert is a command that is very aptly named. In other words, it is an “expert” when it comes to sketches. Using the SketchXpert is extremely easy, however remembering how to launch it can be a bit tricky. The tip to launching the SketchXpert is to remember what it’s used for; solving over-defined sketches. So how do we know if the sketch is over-defined? If you said, “check the status bar” you are correct. The status bar is on the bottom of the SOLIDWORKS interface. It provides the user with feedback on their current status. In a sketch you can either be under-defined, fully defined or over-defined. Since SketchXpert is used to fix over-defined sketches, it gets launched by clicking on the words “Over Defined” in the status bar.

Once the SketchXpert is open it’s simple to use. The tool will analyze the sketch and provide all possible solutions. These solutions can be viewed in either the Diagnose or Manual Repair method. Personally, I recommend using the Diagnose method as it’s more interactive. Toggling through the solutions will display all the possible resolutions to the sketch. After selecting the appropriate solution hitting “Accept” and “Ok” will update the sketch accordingly.

Just like that an over-defined sketch has been fixed, without having to hit Ctrl+Z repeatedly. Next time your sketch becomes over-defined be sure to take advantage of the SketchXpert tool, to save you the headache.