Selecting all these sketch segments and it quickly creates the driven dimension that is the entire length of those segments.

Using this Path Length Dimension tool is simple. Let’s look deeper into the steps to accomplish this task.Ĭreating a sketch on the flange of the part, and using the Offset Entities command, gives us the curve to drive our pattern. We will accomplish this by using an equation to define the quantity of holes, relating it to a Path Length Dimension value. To fully capture this design intent, we want the quantity of these equally spaced holes to be driven by our part size. That sounds easy enough but what if the part geometry changes? Will we need to edit the pattern to add more holes? To accomplish this task, we will utilize the Hole Wizard feature and create a Curve Driven Pattern to get our complete array of holes. Here is the design request that we received. More specifically, we are going to use this Path Length Dimension as a reference dimension in an equation. For this post we are going to take advantage of the Path Length Dimension option. We have options for Chain, Baseline, Ordinate, and even a few more.

There are a several other dimension tools for applying dimensions to our sketches. You simply select the items you want to dimension and, depending on where you place the resulting dimension, SOLIDWORKS creates the parameter.

The Smart Dimension tool is very intuitive. One of the first things you learn in SOLIDWORKS, is how to use the Smart Dimension tool to fully define your sketches.

Solidworks hexagon