How to Dimension the Undimensionable SOLIDWORKS Drawing

So as designers we have all run into that part in SOLIDWORKS that we just can't dimension one edge when making our detail drawing and we all want to know why this is or how to get around it. This particular issue came into the Support line a couple weeks ago and was on a Sheet Metal part.

Looking a little further into the part to see how it was built we can not only see how the part was created but also our solution. Because the part was built with Sheet Metal tools we can reuse the sketch in the flat view to get our dimension.

All we need to do is find and Show the Sketch in the drawing.

With the Sketch shown we can easily add the Dimension that we need and then Hide the Sketch in the same way that we showed it.

The end result show on the right captures our design intent and we have a drawing that we can now send out to the shop floor. This is one of several ways that we can get dimensions for features that at first try seem impossible to dimension.

Thanks to CATI's Jordan Nardick for finding this Redneck workaround.

Josh Altergott

CATI Support Manager