The Autotrace feature allows you to automatically trace around a sketch picture that has been imported into SOLIDWORKS. This is a great way to quickly recreate a logo or organic shape. The image can then be used in features such as extrudes and sweeps. Let’s take a look at how to enable this tool and how to apply it to an image within your project. To activate the Autotrace functionality, navigate to Tools > Add-ins and check the box that activates Autotrace. By not checking the box, the option in your Sketch toolbar won’t appear. Autotrace is then accessible when the Sketch tab is activated.

In this example, we’ll be using our own TriMech logo. After importing the logo, the first adjustment to make is resizing the logo. The new and intuitive resizing arrow makes this task easy to execute. Simply add the dimension to the dialog box and click ENTER – the entire logo is resized according to the specs entered.

Standard Properties hasn’t changed, but now you’ll notice a NEXT arrow in the top-right corner of your left sidebar. This reveals settings for Autotrace behavior such as image brightness, contrast, and recognition tolerance.

When using Autotrace, it’s best to zoom in as much as possible. In this example of the TriMech logo, we started with creating a window around the “R”. This will automatically create a trace around the “R”. It’s not always perfect, but you can clean up the trace with the settings found in the toolset. Next, create a window around each letter and each object you want to trace in the image.

Once you’re happy with the results of the Autotrace, you can use a boss extrude feature to add dimension to your image. You can now produce an extruded cut to make a profile in a sheet metal part for example. Check out the video below for a more in-depth look at this intuitive tool!

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