Construction Geometry
You can designate the resulting objects of geometry features as construction geometry. Such objects are only available for use inside the geometry sequence, and are automatically removed when you leave the sequence, for example to define the physics or to set up the mesh, according to the following:
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Construction geometry objects are removed by the Form Union/Assembly node.
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Construction geometry objects in the plane geometry sequence of a work plane do not appear in the 3D geometry sequence.
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Construction geometry objects in a geometry part do not appear in instances of the part.
In the Selection List window, the construction geometry objects are indicated with the text (construction). In the 2D sketch visualization mode, dashed lines and weaker colors are used to display construction geometry. The edges of a construction geometry object are displayed with dark dashed edges when the sketch visualization is off in 2D and also in 3D, as shown in Figure 7-4.
Figure 7-4: A block marked as construction geometry is visualized with dashed geometry edges.
To set the output of most 2D and 3D geometry features (the exceptions being Form Union/Assembly, the virtual geometry operations, and some of the CAD defeaturing tools) to construction geometry do one of the following:
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In the settings for geometric primitives, in the section Assigned Attributes, select the check box Construction geometry (cleared by default).
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In the settings for operation features, in the section Assigned Attributes, from the Construction geometry list choose On. The default option Inherit from input means that the resulting object becomes construction geometry if all input objects are construction geometry. Choose Off to never output construction geometry objects.
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Select a number of primitive geometry objects in the Graphics window (or edges or vertices if you are in the 2D sketch visualization mode). Then right-click, and, from the context menu, choose Construction geometry to toggle the Construction geometry check box for the corresponding feature.
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From the Sketch ribbon tab or toolbar, in the Draw Settings section, select the Construction toggle button (cleared by default) to create construction geometry when using the tools in the Draw section of the toolbar.