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NX 12 features plenty of new options for designing with ease. In this video, NX CAD Application Engineer, Brandon Carter, walks us through the new inferred constraint option. Take a look:
In NX, if the inferred constraint is on, if you draw a circle, it gives you the alignment indicator in the middle of the circle as you draw a second one. It automatically adds that new alignment constraint, so if you move one circle, the other moves with it, keeping them aligned.
Horizontal and vertical alignment was added in NX 11, with the customer default set to “on.” Now, the customer default in NX 12 is set to “off.”
NX 12 Inferred Constraint Option: Tips & Tricks
To find this customer default, go to “Customer Defaults,” then “Sketch,” then “Inferred Constraints and Dimensions/Constraints.” You’ll find a check-box for “Create Alignment Constraints.”
By checking this box, you’ll turn on the inferred constraint option. If you then go into the “Inferred Constraints and Dimensions” dialog box, you’ll see that you can check and uncheck “Horizontal Alignment” and “Vertical Alignment.” Note that the only way that these boxes will show up in this box is if you’ve already checked the “Create Alignment Constraints” box.
If, in “Inferred Constraints and Dimensions,” you uncheck “Horizontal Alignment,” you can draw two circles and have them be aligned, but they won’t be constrained. You can move one independent of the other.
Now, if you don’t have this option checked, that doesn’t mean you can’t still have circles be constrained. You can always constrain on the fly, the way you have previously. And you can remove constraints simply by selecting the circle constraint and pressing “Delete.”
Keeping the Inferred Constraint Option On
Say you like having this option on constantly. This can create a problem—if you’re free-form sketching, every time you go to sketch a line, the program will place an alignment constraint.
There is a workaround, however: Hold down the “ALT” button on your keyboard, and it will override the alignment constraint as you’re sketching.
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