How to Move a Sketch in SOLIDWORKS in 4 Simple Steps

Moving sketches while in edit sketch mode of SOLIDWORKS is not always the easiest of things to do, particularly if your sketch is under-defined.

You could use the move entities command, but this won’t snap the sketch to your desired location…

Instead, there’s another way that involves no additional tools, and only four simple steps.

So, let’s show you how to easily move sketches in SOLIDWORKS!

We’ve highlighted the steps below, but if you would like to see a video of this technique and a few other sketch tools then make sure you watch this tutorial video:

The Four Steps to Moving a Sketch

1. Select all the sketch entities you wish to move, or click within the shaded region of a closed contour sketch.
2. Hold the CTRL key then click and drag the selected entities from a vertex, not an edge. This will allow you greater control over where you drop your sketch.
3. Once you see the preview outline, release the CTRL key. (this will stop you making a copy of the selected profile.
4. Continue to drag to your desired vertex and release.

Step-by-Step Tutorial with Pictures

#1 We want to move this sketch onto the origin.

#2 Click the shaded area or windows select the geometry you want to move.

#3 Hold down CTRL and start to click-drag a vertex.

#4 Release CTRL once you see the preview.

#5 Drag selected entity to its new location.

#6 Release mouse button, the sketch has been moved and snapped into new location.