"Set Working Plane" and "Look at Working Plane" needn't be two separate commands

[Christiaan]

I'd like a more efficient way of looking orthogonally at a surface of my model that isn't aligned to one of the cardinal views. We use 'Set Working Plane' and 'Look at Working Plane' quite a bit—because our buildings are not square boxes—but it's a convoluted process.

 

Instead, one of the following options would be better, in order of personal preference:

1. A new contextual menu item: Set and View Working Plane. With the Selection Tool active the user would simply right-click on any surface, select this option and it would set the Working Plane and take the user to an orthogonal view of the Working Plane.*
2. A new 3D Modelling tool: Set and View Working Plane. Using this tool would not only set the Working Plane but also take the user to an orthogonal view of the Working Plane.*

* It should always be orthogonal. I never want to look at a Working Plane in perspective.

 

The first option is by far the most efficient, with two clicks and no need to move the cursor to a tool palette. The second option would have the benefit of pre-selection (as the current Set Working Plane tool works), and would still be relatively efficient with 3-clicks and one move to a tool palette.

 

The current UI for this is a convoluted 5-click process:

• Move cursor to and select 3D Modelling toolset
• Select Working Plane tool
• Click on relevant face in model
• Select View menu
• Choose Look at Working Plane (for which there is no keyboard shortcut)
• If you're in perspective it will also require a 6th and 7th click to change to orthogonal

Edited January 5, 2023 by Christiaan

[Christiaan]

From a separate post:  

21 hours ago, markdd said:

This workflow can be reduced a little by using the little known shortcut cmd+\. This will activate the Select Working Plane  cursor (not the working plane tool). Pick the Plane you wish to align to and then use a custom Shortcut for Look at Working Plane.

 

@markdd doesn't this require manually moving the Working Plane around to align to an object?

Edited January 5, 2023 by Christiaan

[markdd]

Just now, Christiaan said:

 doesn't this require manually moving the Working Plane around to align to an object?

No, it is a dedicated shortcut to just use the second mode of the Set Working Plane Tool.

 

 

It's incredibly useful as you can use the shortcut when you have a surface highlighted when in Automatic Working Plane and it can run at the same time as say a tool command, meaning that you can hold a working plane that you have already set using the Automatic Mode.

 

 

 

[Christiaan]

Ah I see, I was confused because you said it activates "Select Working Plane cursor (not the working plane tool)" (Edit > Select Working Plane) but it activates what VW seems to variably call "Automatic Working Plane mode" or "Planar Face Mode" of the Set Working Plane tool. Which is great, thanks Mark.

 

The shortcut in the Design Suite workspace is just the backslash for me. No command key.

 

Problem is I get this every time I click it, and I don't know why:

Edited January 5, 2023 by Christiaan

[Christiaan]

Stranger still is if I try to add a keyboard shortcut for 'Look at Working Plane' (and I try to use cmd+\) it says it's already use by Set Working Plane.

 

 

 

Problem seems to be a conflict with 1Password. Tapping on cmd+\ for me me activates 1Password:

 

[Christiaan]

Clearing out the 1Password shortcut and restarting resolved that problem. I can now activate Set Working Plane using cmd\

 

But I don't get the same behaviour as you in the second video. Are you saying you have Edit > Select Working Plane also set to the same shortcut? cmd\

[markdd]

Sorry, I have confused things. My mistake. I meant Set Working Plane rather than Select. (There are too many distractions here at the moment.)

 

The cmd + \ shortcut activates the Set Working Plane menu command which I have in my Working Plane menu Commands list. I use this in conjunction with the Automatic Working Plane functionality as per the video.

 

 

[Andy Broomell]

Confusingly, there's both a "Set Working Plane" command and a "Set Working Plane" tool which are two different but similar things.

 

 

Regardless, the contextual option proposed in the original post is a smart idea.

[Tom W.]

37 minutes ago, Andy Broomell said:

Confusingly, there's both a "Set Working Plane" command and a "Set Working Plane" tool which are two different but similar things.

 

I didn't know about the Set Working Plane command so thanks to @markdd for pointing it out! I use the Option-1 shortcut all the time to activate the Set Working Plane Tool which is by default set to the 2nd mode so almost the same but the advantage of doing it the Cmd-\ way is that you don't lose the active tool in the process.

 

7 hours ago, Christiaan said:

• A new contextual menu item: Set and View Working Plane. With the Selection Tool active the user would simply right-click on any surface, select this option and it would set the Working Plane and take the user to an orthogonal view of the Working Plane.*
• A new 3D Modelling tool: Set and View Working Plane. Using this tool would not only set the Working Plane but also take the user to an orthogonal view of the Working Plane.*

 

These would both be great.