Bug or is there some reason for this behavior?

SOLIDWORKS SW General
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I’m working on an API application where I need to move the XYZ positions of individual endpoints of a chain of sketch entities. The endpoints all have a “fixed” relation applied. My initial approach was to suppress the Fixed relation, set the coordinates of the point, then unsuppress the Fixed relation. I struggled quite a while with getting this to work until I realized that you cannot direcly move an entity that has a fixed relation, even if that relation is suppressed! This is the case whether you’re using the API or directly trying to drag things in the UI.

Not that I think you need it, but I’ve attached a file with a single rectangle in a sketch. The top right corner point has a Fixed relation which is suppressed. You can move the point by dragging the top or right side lines, (expected), you can move it by adding dimensions or other constraints, but if you try to drag the corner point itself, you can’t, and a tooltip pops up telling you it’s fixed. You can’t move it by setting the x-y parameters in the property manager.

This behavior is in both 2021 and 2025sp3. And I assume everything in between. If it’s a bug, it seems like a pretty basic one to have existed for so long. If it’s intended behavior, I can’t think of a reason for it. Anyone else?
CannaeDragFixed.SLDPRT (32.2 KB)

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Dragging half works if you don’t pick the endpoint. The drag will allow the line to rotate about whichever endpoint was closest to your mouse pick for the drag.

If you turn on ‘No solve move’ in the sketch settings, the behavior changes. you can drag the line, but only parallel to itself.

@Rob reported this in the SWYMP back in 2019:

There’s an SPR number listed but it doesn’t appear to be valid. I searched the KB around that date but didn’t come up with a match. The behavior goes back at least to 2017, which is the oldest version I have installed.

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“…half works if you don’t pick the endpoint…” meaning if I drag the line? That’s what I’d found, but for the application I’m developing I need to be able to exactly specify the location for a point that is the shared endpoint of two lines. Can’t get there by dragging! :smiley: What I ended up doing was completely deleting the fixed relation and then adding it back again after I moved the point.

I did go ahead and report it to my VAR (Trimech) and they have forwarded it on to SW. But if it was doing this 7 years ago, I’m thinking it’s not gonna change.

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Here’s a new SR# in case anyone’s interested or finds this in the future…

SR01422121-01

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