Project / Include

Project copies edges of a part into your sketch. Click an edge, or a flat face for its whole outline, and it appears in the sketch as purple lines, arcs and circles. They stay linked to the part: if the part changes, they move with it. The button says Project; its full name is Project / Include.

Use it to:

• Draw a shape that lines up exactly with a part, such as a lid that fits the top of a box.
• Snap to and dimension from a part's real circles and arcs: a circle with the same centre as a hole, or a line tangent to a rounded corner.
• Use the outline of a face as a shape to extrude, add on to or cut.

How to use it#

1. Start a sketch, on a face of the part or on a plane.
2. Click Project, or press P (U works too).
3. Move the pointer over the part. What it will bring in lights up purple, with Project this edge or Project this face.
4. Click an edge to bring in that edge. Click a flat face to bring in its whole outline, holes included.
5. Bring in as many as you need, then press Esc.

Edges are flattened onto the sketch, the way you see them when you look straight at the sketch. Where two edges line up, such as the front and back edges of a board, the one nearest the sketch is used.

Profile or construction#

Projected geometry is either:

• Solid purple: it makes shapes (profiles) with your own lines, so Extrude can use it. A projected face outline is a closed shape by itself. A shape you draw inside it is a shape of its own as well as a hole in the outline, so you can extrude just your shape.
• Dashed purple (construction): only for snapping and dimensions.

Select projected geometry and press Q to switch it between the two. A face outline or an edge switches all at once. You can also click a dashed face outline again with Project to make it solid.

Snap and dimension to it#

Projected lines, arcs and circles come in with their corners and centre points. Snap new lines to them, dimension from them, and use them in constraints: for example, select a projected hole and your own circle and click Concentric (◎). Projected geometry is fixed: you cannot drag it, and it only moves when the part does.

Linked to the part#

When you change an earlier feature (make the box taller, move a hole), the projected geometry is worked out again from the part, so your sketch stays lined up with it.

To remove projected geometry, select it and press Delete. The whole edge or face outline goes, with any constraints on it.

Tips#

• The dashed orange edges you see in every sketch are only for snapping and dimensions. Project an edge when you want its real arcs and circles, or want it to be part of your shape.
• For a lid that fits a box exactly, sketch on the top face of the box, project the face, and extrude the outline as a New part.

If it does not work#

• That face is curved. Click one of its edges instead.
• That face is side-on to the sketch. Click one of its edges instead.
• That is already projected into this sketch. or That edge is already part of a projected outline in this sketch. It is there already: look for the purple lines.
• 1 projected edge or face could not be found after an earlier change. Edit the sketch and project it again. A change to the part took away that edge or face. Double-click the sketch in the feature tree and project the edge or face again.