What are use-edges?
Use-edges are key in a concurrent engineering process, helping you with your design by letting you re-use existing elements from a part coming from another designer for example. In other words, use-edges help you create geometry from existing 3D shapes as well as from other layouts.
The 2D Layout for 3D Design workbench provides three use-edge functionalities:
- Project 3D elements onto the view plane: lets you create geometry in the current design view by projecting a 3D element onto the view plane.
- Intersect 3D elements with the view plane: lets you create geometry in the current design view by intersecting a 3D element with the view plane.
- Project 3D silhouette edges: lets you create geometry in the current design view by projecting the silhouette edge of a 3D element onto the view plane.
What are associative use-edges?
Associative use-edges are the use-edges which are associative to the geometrical inputs. If input geometry is modified then the use-edge is also modified. For more information refer to Creating Associative Use-Edges.
What you need to know about use-edges
Use-edge commands are only available when the current view is a design view. In other words, they are not available in isometric views (because they are not design views).
The input element (the element to be projected or intersected) is any visible geometry which does not directly belong to the current view. This means that you can select geometrical elements contained in the 2D or 3D background of any view, as well as geometrical elements contained in non-current design views, with the exception of geometry in a 2D component instance which cannot be selected.
The table below sums up the types of elements that you can select, depending on where they are located and visualized.
| Can I select geometry in... | ...when it is visualized in the current view? | ...when it is visualized in other views? |
| ...the 3D background... | Yes | Yes |
| ...the 2D background (except 2D Component instances)... |
Yes (except geometry defined in the main view) |
Yes, (except geometry defined in the current view) |
| ...a design view (except 2D Component instances)... |
No | Yes |
As shown in the table above, you can select geometry which is not only visible in the current view, but also in a different view.
Differences with use-edges in Sketcher
If you are familiar with the Sketcher workbench, you need to be aware that use-edges in 2D Layout for 3D Design differ from use-edges in Sketcher to a certain extent. The restriction listed below describes the difference.
