SOLIDWORKS Check Sketch for Feature Tool Explained

The SOLIDWORKS Check Sketch for Feature tool is a nifty little tool that checks your sketch to see if it meets the requirements for the feature you select and will even magnify any gaps in your sketch to help you repair them.

There are around 30 features you can check your sketch for - from a simple boss extrude all the way to a Surface Fill.

Recently, I was helping a client with engraving text with a very specific font onto the face of a part. This is normally pretty simple; select your face, create a sketch, insert your text, cut extrude the sketch, etc. No biggie, right? The problem was that his customer (my customer’s customer) sent him the text in the form of a DXF file, which was created in a 2D program. Due to the very specific font, the only way to import the text was by dissolving it to lines, splines, and points. It looked sort of like this:

The interesting part was when he would try to cut-extrude that sketch, it would error out. At the end of the day, the issue was that there were multiple little gaps between points and thus leaving open contours. With thousands of points and splines, it would have been impossible to go thru each one to find out where the disconnection was.

This is when I recommended to him the check sketch for feature tool and within seconds he was able to find the gap and off he went. Here is how to use the tool:

Pro Tip: Most sketch tools will be grayed out if you are not inside a sketch. 

Whilst inside a sketch, go to Tools > Sketch Tools > Check Sketch for Feature.

Select the feature from Feature Usage drop down menu and hit Check.

At this point, the results dialog will tell you if you have open contours or not. If you do, click OK and it will take you to the repair sketch step. This is when the tool magnifies the gaps and lets you repair them.

After repairing your sketch, you can feel confident in performing that feature.

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