I’ve been asked this same question quite a few times, mainly from those who are coming from AutoCAD and/or getting started in SolidWorks for the very first time. I know the answer to this one is very obvious for those of you who have been using SolidWorks for a while, but since I’ve been there myself, I thought it would be a good idea to dedicate at least a few lines to it. 

The question is how to activate and make use of something similar to AutoCAD’s OSNAPS and Polar Tracking while sketching in SolidWorks?

As most of us know, because we’ve used AutoCAD at one time or another, OSNAPS and Polar Tracking are some of the handiest tools available in AutoCAD, so much that getting accurate dimensions would be really difficult without them. OSNAPS (object snaps) make it easy to snap to objects in the sketch, or more exactly, to parts of that object, like the center of a circle, the midpoint of a line, etc. Polar tracking, on the other side, facilitates sketching lines at a predetermined angle.

SolidWorks, has several options for snapping to objects, such as center points, mid points, intersections, etc. It also allows you to add relations automatically and to customize and display a grid and snap to it, as well. All without having to use no 2D emulator! To activate all this goodness, all you have to do is go to Tools, Options,  System Options,  Sketch, Relations/Snaps and select  Enable Snapping, Snap to Model Geometry and Automatic Relations.  Right underneath these options, you are going to see a list of possible objects to snap to, such as end points, center points, nearest, etc. You are pretty much covered by selecting all of them, because it will only snap to those objects you pre-select from that list.

Almost at the bottom of the list, you’ll notice an option named grid. If you select this option, you’ll be able to snap to points in a grid that is also fully customizable.  Simply click on Go to Document Grid Settings and a new set of options show up. From these options, you can select to make the grid visible by choosing Display Grid, or change the grid spacing, for instance.

OK, so now all this stuff is activated… What does it mean? Well, It means that the next time you open or edit a sketch in SolidWorks you are going to see a grid (if you chose to display it) and you’ll be able to snap to the points in this grid, and it also means that you are going to notice changes in your cursor as you sketch your different entities, like the ones you see in the images.  Those little symbols let you know what kind of relation will be applied to the different entities of your sketch. For example, in the image, there’s a coincident relation between one end point of the line and the origin, and a tangent relation between the arc and the circle. Although relations and dimensions can be modified later, this is a great tool that can save you time and effort.