Minimize Sketch Geometry?

Cary McLaughlin -

Could you please explain how long you used SW? and who is rejecting the models, your Boss or your Instructor?

It depends on who is doing the rejecting. You will see ALL of the VARs and SW guys doing a quick extrude and pulling the arrows for depth when they do a "Show & Tell" to impress the boss and get the sale. Then when you start working on those  and items made with those methods, you find that your sketches are unconstrained and likely to cause problems down the road.

Is it possible that the person doing the rejecting is rejecting something like unconstrained sketches and not giving you the full reason for the rejection?

Coming from a world that uses primarily sheetmetal and uses lots of symmetry, I start most of my parts as sheetmetal with a  center rectangle having the center of my first surface centered on the Origin. Even modeling structural tubing and the like I set it with the datum planes centered top to bottom and side to side with the tube extruded both ways so I have planes in the center of the part. My coworkers on the other hand were all taught to use extrusions to make the part and then convert. They place the Origin at the bottom left of everything they make.

Drives me up a wall!

Bottom line, other than things like making sure ALL of your sketches are constrained and waiting to place your fillets till the last, many times  "best practices" are often driven by what works best with your workflow. But I am always open to learning a better way.

I prefer to see an inside dim and the outside dim on the pipes and other parts instead of an extrude thin.  There is only one place the sketch to check dims not a sketch and a feature.  I have trouble seeing some dims in the model when double clicking ect.  Colors and me don't always get along. 

It depends the use

If I need the square for a mold or a die a full defined square and extruded will be the best choice "the reason" see this catalog, did you see all the variables as you need to give a value?

as structural member are simple forms not to many variables to give, I think maybe this one was the principal reason what your projet rejected.

There is no limit to your supply of sketch geometry. You are not billed by the segment.

Do what is best to properly define the design. No more, no less.

Hi Cary

I don't know if it's good practise or not but I use thin extrudes all the time.

What could be simpler?

They're just another weapon in your armoury.

For example these grooves (you have to alternate the sketch lines direction) but its quick and easy once you remember.

I use the same name for the sketch and the feature but use an underscore or a hyphen which is easily understandable in equations

The only down side for me is the position of the dimension is not always very obvious