Dynamic Input Dimensions when sketching

[Goomba]

I am 99% sure when our solidworks provider came in to do the 'whats new' presentation I asked about inputting dimensions while you sketch rather than sketch and then dimension and he showed me SW 2012 could do it.

Now I finally got 2012 installed and It isnt doing it? do I need to turn it on somewhere?

[SuperCAD]

Yes. System Options -> Sketch, near the bottom look for "Enable on screen numeric input on entity creation." Check that box.

[shift1313]

fyi, thats in 2011 to

[Goomba]

Thanks heaps!

was it really in 2011?! I was coming off using Inventor and that was one of the things I was missing alot. I wish I knew it was in 2011 back when I started!

Is it something that is defaulted to off? Or did whoever set up my computer turn it off?

[shift1313]

its defaulted off. but when you are using it if you don't input anything and you just keep clicking to add lines it works just as if it was off too. I think it was added in 2011 but i could be wrong on that. I dont personally use it.

[JD Mather]

I just tried it in 2011 and it doesn't work in SWx as in Inventor.
It does allow direct distance entry - but doesn't add the parametric dimensions.
Am I missing something?

[SuperCAD]

This ability was introduced in 2011. It made me happy because it was closer to the way I was used to drawing in AutoCAD. I use it about 70% of the time. The only annoying thing with this is when you add that last line you'll get an error message saying that the dimension over-defines the sketch and will be set to driven.

[shift1313]

I just tried it in 2011 and it doesn't work in SWx as in Inventor.
It does allow direct distance entry - but doesn't add the parametric dimensions.
Am I missing something?

the only thing it does in SW2011 is add a number in the parameters box under the line properties. It was more a way to get the scale right before you dimension which is why i never used it. I dont know if they changed that functionality in 2012 but i believe they did.

[Goomba]

Yeah now I have actually used it I have noticed it shows the dimension when you sketch and you can input the length, or whatever it may be, but as soon as you hit enter the dimension is gone.

Granted the line is drawn at the correct length but I still need to add a dimension to define the line.

Is there something else I need to turn on?

[SuperCAD]

On the left hand side, when you sketch a line, under Options check the box that reads "Add dimensions."