Points for Style - Creating an Offset Workplane and Sketch in One Step in Autodesk Inventor

“You can't do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh.”
John Singer Sargent

Some of my favorite tricks in Autodesk Inventor are the simple ones.  They may not be flashy and they may not save hours of time, but they're nice little tricks that just make the day to day operations flow by a little smoother.

One of these, is the ability to create an offset work plane and sketch at the same time.

Typically, to create a sketch on an offset work plane there are a few clicks involved.

First, I have to start the work plane tool, and create my offset work plane.

Creating the workplane

Next, I have to place a sketch, on that newly created work plane.

Creating a sketch on that work plane

There aren't a lot of clicks involved, but it's always nice if there's a way to do it with even fewer clicks. 

How can that be done? 

Instead of going to the Work Plane tool, I'm going to start the 2D Sketch tool directly.

By clicking and holding on the planar face I want to offset from, I can drag the offset work plane, and create both the sketch, and the plane at the same time.

It's a simple thing, but it really does make things flow a bit more smoothly.

Give it a try! 

And take a look at the steps shown in the video below!