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Tea_Berries
2007-09-14, 04:16 PM
I never really understood what this means when creating components from solid extrusion. Help anyone?

:(

Calvn_Swing
2007-09-14, 07:00 PM
Not sure what you're asking, but I'll give it a shot.

A circular chain of references basically means the same thing in all cases. Here's an example. Let's say you make a sloped floor. Now let's say you make a wall and edit it's profile by aligning and locking the bottom of that sketch to the sloped floor. Now, let's say you try in plan to constrain the edge of that floor to that wall somehow. Error!

Think of it this way, constraints of all types are just a hierarchy. You have on MOST important element, and then you are constraining less important elements to it. In this case, the constraint you set first (wall to floor) means the floor is the top dog. When you try and constrain the floor back to the wall you're basically saying this: The Wall is in charge of the Floor which is in charge of the Wall which is in charge of the Floor............. You've made a circular chain of references. It can get really complicated in a family where you can have literally hundreds of constraints.That's why it is so important to plan out your hierarchy ahead of time and stick with it. Chances are you're trying to constrain your extrusion to something that it is controlling in another relationship in the family. You can even (in rare cases) get that error when you're creating a new extrusion, though that is a lot harder to do, and I can't think of an example off the top of my head.