To Work with Geometric Constraints

Show Constraints by Default

In a sketch, Sketch tab Constrain Panel Constraint Settings .
In the General tab, under Constraint, select any of the following:
- Display Constraints on Creation. Inventor displays constraints when you create geometry or constraints. Constraint display is hidden automatically when you finish the current command and when there is a graphic change, such as drawing a new sketch entity or applying a new constraint.
- Show Constraints for Selected Objects. Highlights constraints for geometry you are selecting in the graphics window. When displayed, any constraint can be selected to be deleted.
- Display Coincident Constraints in Sketch. Displays the coincident constraint glyph when the constraint is created.
Click OK.

In an active sketch, do any of the following:
- To show or hide constraints for all active sketch geometry, click Show All Constraints or Hide All Constraints in the status bar.
- To hide a specific constraint glyph, right-click the glyph and choose Hide.
- To highlight all associated geometries and constraint glyph partners, point to a constraint glyph.

Click and drag a constraint glyph to move it. The new position, relative to the geometry, is maintained when the geometry is moved. If you turn constraint visibility off and on, however, the constraint glyph reverts to its default location relative to the geometry.
To delete a constraint, click to select the constraint glyph and then press Delete. Or select the geometry, right-click, and choose Delete Constraints.
Note: Deleting the reference constraint has the same effect as selecting Break Link from the context menu: the reference geometry is converted to normal geometry and the associative links to the parent geometry are removed.

In a sketch when no command is active, do one of the following:
- Click Show All Degrees of Freedom or Hide All Degrees of Freedom from the status bar.
- To show or hide glyphs for specific geometry, right-click the geometry and select or deselect Display Degrees of Freedom.
  Note: As new geometry is created, glyphs for that geometry are not automatically displayed. Select Hide All Degrees of Freedom then select Show All Degrees of Freedom again from the status bar.

If Relax Mode is not enabled in the Constraint Settings dialog box, turn it on by clicking the Relax Mode button

in the status bar at the bottom of the graphics window.

Note: The state of the Relax Mode command persists between Inventor sessions.

The following table explains the different the behavior that occurs when working with Relax Mode on and off.

	Relax Mode On	Relax Mode Off
When dragging constrained geometry:	The geometry can be freely dragged by: Removing conflicted constraints that are highlighted. Changing conflicted dimensions to be Driven during dragging.	Geometry that is already constrained cannot be freely dragged. To drag the geometry, you must: Find the conflicted constraints and delete them manually. Find the conflicted dimensions and change them to be Driven or delete them manually.
When adding a constraint or dimension to constrained geometry:	The constraint or dimension can be added for geometry that are already constrained by: Removing conflicted constraints that are highlighted. Changing conflicted dimensions to be Driven dimensions.	A warning message indicates that adding the constraint or dimension will over-constrain the geometry. To add the new constraint or dimension, you must: Find the conflicted constraints and delete them manually. Find the conflicted dimensions and change them to be Driven or delete them manually.

Other considerations for working in Relax Mode:

Coincident, Tangent, Symmetric, and Smooth constraints do not change in Relax Mode.
Dimensions controlled by equations do not change in Relax Mode.
With relax dragging, you can relax all constraints except Pattern and Project. When unexpected results occur in relax dragging, manually remove Pattern and Project constraints.
If you try to add new constraints and dimensions when working in Relax Mode and you encounter problems, try manually removing Coincident, Smooth, Tangent, Symmetry, Pattern, and Project constraints to resolve the conflicts.