Hello, my name is Will Tenney, and in this lesson, we discuss the following closed contour sketch tools. circles, rectangles, ellipses, slots, and polygons. Let's start by creating a new sketch and we can use the top plane for this one. Here we go. Let's move over to the sketch tools in the upper left hand corner. Within the circle sketch tool set, we have two options, circle and perimeter circle, and let's begin with the first one. The first click sets the center and the second click establishes the general size. To fully define this circle, we'll need to establish a diameter first. We then establish the location of that circle. This can be done with smart dimension or relationship. Let's do that now. We'll set the diameter to say 90 millimeters, and then we're going to establish a horizontal relationship with the origin and then a distance from the origin, and we'll call that 90 as well. Great. Next, we have the perimeter circle tool. This is generally made by selecting three points in the graphics area that are triangular to one another. The first point sets the beginning of that triangle, the second point sets the opposite point, and the third completes the triangle. Defining this type of circle is the same as the standard circle command. We need to both set the location and the size of the entity. You may have noticed that when we select either of the circle commands, we are given a menu on the left hand side that shows us which type we are using. Also, once the circle is created, we can reselect it. There we go, to reopen this menu if we wanna make changes. We can also decide to set parameters such as the XY location of the point and the general size of the circle. Here we go. Let's go ahead and delete this. Next we'll explore squares and rectangles. There are five methods for creating a rectangle in Solidworks. The first is the corner rectangle. Like with the circle, selecting the sketch command brings up a menu to the left to reselect other sketch methods if we so choose. For the corner rectangles specifically, we first click to establish one of the corners and then click again to establish the opposite corner. If we select a point on that rectangle, we are brought to its own point or vertex menu to the left and like before, we can use this to create new relationships such as this fixed relationship offering that we have here. We can also set the XY locations with these toggle arrows or using the keyboard to type in an exact coordinate if we'd like. Selecting a line on the rectangle offers similar options. Here we can actually enter values for the XY locations of each of the points down here. We can also decide to use the toggle buttons if we so choose, and we can establish relationships over here to the left. Now the next type of rectangle is the center rectangle. Let's go ahead and create that now. This one is commonly used in design because we tend to center items in relationship to one another or within their environment. This command prompts you to establish the center first with the first click, and a second click sets the general size. The third type is the three point corner rectangle. This type allows us to create rectangles that aren't necessarily set vertically or horizontally. We can choose the angle at which they lean. A first click establish the starting corner, a second click sets the angle, and a third click sets the size. Now had this been a standard rectangle command, vertical and horizontal relationships would've already been baked into this initial sketch. You can see this doesn't have that. It's sitting at an angle. In fact, the only baked in parameters of this sketch entity are the perpendicular relationships to the corners as well as the parallel relationships from side to side. If we click one of these sides or corners, or we can even just see them now, we have these little green icons that tell you what relationship currently exists. This means in order to fully define this type of rectangle, you'll actually need to establish size and location and the angle of its tilt. Next is the three point center rectangle. This is just like the three point corner rectangle except the center of the shape is established with the first click, not the corner. You'll need all three clicks to complete the shape. Last is the parallelogram. This is exactly like the three point corner rectangle tool. The difference is as you set the third click, you set the angle of the corners. Here, the perpendicular relationship of the corners is not baked in. Again, you'll have to establish that value on your own. Next is the ellipses. This dropdown menu has four choices. Let's begin with the first, the standard ellipse, which you can think of as a center ellipse. The first click establishes the center, the second click gives you width, and the final click gives you height. You can also draw this at an angle if you like. Now, as you can see this tool shows four dots on the ellipses, and each of these dots basically signifies a point where the arc of that ellipsis is tangent to an unseen line. So, let me show you what I mean by that. If I were to draw some construction lines and set them with horizontal and vertical relationships, and then make them tangent to the arcs that they touch, you can see I can't change the tilt of this relationship and I can't change the vertical and horizontal settings on these lines. That is because these arcs and lines are tangent to one another. Now, tangency, for those who don't know, implies that two lines or arcs are touching so that the direction of their movement at the moment of the connection is the same as the other. Next is the partial ellipse. And like the standard ellipse, the first three clicks establishes the center, the width, and the height. The fourth click sets how complete the length of the arc is going to be. That is why this is a partial ellipsis. To define this fully, you'll need to set length, width, angle, starting point of the arc, and ending point of the arc. And as you can see, this is an open contour sketch entity because there is a break in the line and there is no blue or purple shaded interior. The next tool set is the slot tool set. The first command is the straight slot command. The first click establish that the center of one of the two arcs, and the second click establishes the angle and the arc center to center length. The final click sets the width of the slot. Like all closed contour sketch tools, this comes embedded with its own relationships. For instance, the arcs are tangent to the lines, and also the arcs are equal to one another. Next is the center point straight slot. The first click is the direct center of the slot and the subsequent clicks finish out the entity. Following that is the three point arc slot. The first three clicks create an arc while the fourth gives that arc thickness. Lastly is the center point arc slot tool. Here, the first click is the center of the arc and the rest of the clicks finish out the arc, and then add thickness. Now remember, the more complex the creation of the sketch entity, the more work you will have to do to fully define it and turn it black. So, I recommend that you utilize other entities around you to create automatic relationships as you build the shape. Let me show you with another center point arc slot. Let's go ahead and delete this one first. Great. Here we go. So for my first click, I'm going to establish a coincident relationship with the origin. Great, now I have one less thing to define. I'm also putting more design intent into my work as I work. There's the green icon signifying the coincident relationship that was established in the very beginning. Looks good. The last close contour sketch tool set for this lesson is the polygon tool. This has just the one command. A first click sets the center of the polygon, and the next click sets the general size and angle. You can see here that it is made a pretty complex looking polygon. We can leave it alone if that's what we're going for, at which point you can just simply click the escape button or the screen check. Let's go ahead and delete this. However, after you create the polygon, you are given the menu on the left to customize it. For instance, here, you can set the number of sides and we'll reduce that to say, six. You can also set the center of the polygon and XY space, the general size, and the angle. Now, for these latter parameters, I'd actually recommend creating the polygon first and then setting those with relationships or smart dimensions, it just tends to be easier that way, but definitely utilize this side toggle tool because that's gonna be a necessary component of creating the polygon that's right for you. We'll go ahead and close that out, and delete the entity. Great. Thanks for watching. Stay tuned for the next lesson where we discuss open contour sketch tools such as lines, center lines, arcs, sketch fillets, and splines.
