please help

I have a question regarding something I'm working on which I know is very simple. Adding an extruded boss to a .sldprt model (already created by a co-worker), if I selected the surface I wanted to sketch on, only the 3D sketch tool was available (regular sketch tool is greyed out unavailable)... Limited in my experience with 3D sketch, I ran into numerous problems with the 3D sketch like no mirroring available, etc. - So why is the regular sketch tool unavailable after I select the surface I want to sketch on? I thought you can sketch right on the surface you want to create the feature on... is it better to draw on a selected plane that is offset from the surface you want the extrusion to protrude from?

I was able to create the extrusion ok by sketching on a selected plane, but was just curious as to why the sketch tool is unavailable after selecting the surface. As stated in my first forum post here, I'm trying to understand SW's rules as to why certain tools become unavailable or what causes certain error messages. For the most part, I'm teaching myself SW after having used it a bit a number of years ago. Now my goal is to really get up to speed with it as quickly as possible and become very proficient at it.

what kind of surface u have

try right clicking on the face and check if the option insert skecth comes in the drop down menu


regards

Deepak Gupta

yeah it maybe that the surface u are trying to sketch on isnt flt or unsketchable, and I think you've solved the problem by creating an offset plane and draw on it. I normally use a reference plane to draw on surfaces that I cannot draw on.