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How is "sketch in 3d" supposed work? (by Amy)
I am trying to figure out how to use "sketch in 3d". The main application I would imagine needing it for is creating solids extruded from a plane with a normal not pointing in the direction of one of the base vectors (X Y Z)

So I thought, alright, I'll just create a sketch in 3D, create a nice sketch, and extrude that:

"Activate a workplane (Sketch -> In Workplane) before extruding"

Ok, well, I guess the extrude tool does not know in what direction to extrude a 3D sketch, I guess I'll see what happens when extruding a normal, and a point, and try a lathe extrude, then it will know what way to extrude.

"Lathe operation can only be applied to planar sketches"

Well, I guess not that either, lets read the documentation:

"The ultimate goal is usually to draw closed sections (like a triangle, or a square with a circular cutout, or some more complicated shape). These sections are the input for later groups. For example, an extrude group takes a flat section, and uses it to form a solid."

Well, I am pretty sure that was what I was doing, I even made it a simple triangle, so that it was definitely a planar face.

So now I am wondering what "sketch in 3D" is even used for, I can draw some helper lines in it of course, but from the documentation, it seems I can actually make solids from it.

I did find one application: draw a circle in 3D (because that is the only shape I can draw in 3D with a usable normal?), make that normal parallel to some other line you drew in 3D, and now you can use this normal to orient a new 2D sketch (which will be at a funny angle, but ok). And now you can perform solid operations with that sketch. Surely there is a less hacky way of achieving this right?

So, tldr, how do I use "sketch in 3D" to create something solid
Fri Jun 20 2025, 13:31:46
(no subject) (by Paul)
@Amy Sketch in 3D allows you to draw things in 3D, as you have figured out. Extrusions (and anything else that creates a solid) have to work on planar sketches which usually means creating a "sketch in new workplane" group and drawing in that plane. But you can create a workplane in any orientation in 3d. The most common way to create a workplane for a sketch is to select 2 lines (ideally orthogonal but not-parallel is enough) and a point - then press Shift-W for sketch in new workplane. The lines you use to define the workplane orientation can be drawn in "anywhere in 3D" mode.

Example, create a new sketch. Switch to anywhere in 3D. Draw 2 arbitrary lines connected at the origin. Next select both line and the origin, then NewGroup->Sketch-in-new-workplane. This will give you a new workplane to draw in and extrude from. But you can manipulate that workplane orientation by dragging those original 2 lines. Note that those lines will be in the previous group to the plane sketch.
Fri Jun 20 2025, 15:44:06
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