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Help Sketching

Move, copy and rotate in a sketch

Move, copy or turn the shapes you select in a sketch by an exact amount, like Transform in Onshape and Move, Copy and Rotate Entities in SOLIDWORKS.

  • TransformSketch toolbar
What other CAD programs call it
SchoolCADOnshapeFusionSOLIDWORKS
TransformTransformMove/CopyMove Entities
Copy Entities
Rotate Entities

Transform moves, copies or turns the shapes you select in a sketch by an amount you type: move a hole 20 mm to the right, copy a slot 15 mm up, or turn a shape 90°. It works like Transform in Onshape and Move Entities, Copy Entities and Rotate Entities in SOLIDWORKS.

How to use it#

  1. Select the shapes: click them, Shift-click to add more, or drag a box round them.
  2. Click Transform in the sketch toolbar and choose Move…, Copy… or Rotate….
  3. Type the amount and press Enter:
    • Move and Copy: how far across and up, in mm, such as 20, 0 (20 to the right) or 0, -15 (15 down).
    • Rotate: the angle in degrees, anticlockwise, such as 90 or -45. It turns round the middle of the shapes, or round a point if you Shift-click a point last.

What happens to dimensions and constraints#

  • Move and Rotate take off the ties between the shapes you moved and the shapes that stayed: a corner joined to another line, a dimension from the origin, a fixed point. A message says how many. Add new dimensions to fix the shapes in their new place.
  • Ties among the moved shapes stay: their sizes, and which lines are parallel or tangent. A turn also takes off horizontal and vertical, which would no longer be true.
  • Copy makes new shapes with the same sizes and ties among themselves, not tied to the originals. For copies that follow the original, use Sketch pattern.

Tips#

  • Lines that share a corner with a shape you did not select stretch to follow it, because they share the corner.
  • Undo (Ctrl+Z) puts the shapes back.