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Workplanes


Spencer

Question

1. Can anyone suggest how to align workplanes on the end of a cylinder (extruded circle) or on the side of a cylinder?

2. When I switch views sometimes the workplane is automatically reoriented to the plane of the new view, sometimes a dialog asks if I want to reposition the workplane, and sometimes it doesn't ask or move it. What are the rules which govern this behavior? I hope it's not random.

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Spencer,

In the Working Planes palette is a working plane button. Click on that.

It should position you so that you can draw off that working plane - depending on how you created the working plane.

The book explains what the various buttons in the WP Palette do.

To align an object to the working plane, set the working plane and then select your object.

Click on the Align Plane tool in the 3d tools palette. Click a location on the object to align with the origin of the working plane.

Click a second point on the object to define the x axis.

Click a third point on the object to define the y axis.

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Katie,

Thanks for your prompt reply.

Unfortunately the end of a cylinder does not have three points which form a right angle. If you first choose one side and second choose the opposite side to establish the i axis of the working plane, there is no point of the end of the cylinder perpendicular to the first point which lets you indicate a j axis. If there were a point at the center of the cylinder end you could select the centerline, the left side and the top.

Now you could first place a 3-D locus point on the end of the cylinder center. In order to do this you need a working plane on the cylinder end so you can place the 3-D locus point. Opps, How do you get the working plane first without the locus point. Catch 22.

Regarding the side of a cylinder, you can select two ends of a line which lies on the side of the cylinder to establish the i axis. But where can you click to establish the j axis. There are no points on a cylinder perpendicular to a line in a cylinder. Stumped again.

Any ideas?

Also, are there rules to how working planes move when you change views?

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

quote:

Originally posted by Spencer:

2. Still looking for rules about when working planes move when switching views.

You will be asked about having the working plane reoriented when it is parallel or nearly parallel to the view direction. VectorWorks needs a way to map screen locations to world coordinates, and it does this normally by projecting them onto the working plane. If that plane is nearly parallel to the view direction, the projected point is outside the bounds of VectorWorks' coordinate system.

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Answers!

Some experimenting cleared up some of the questions.

1. The third point defining a working plane does not have to be perpendicular to the first line. It sets the orientation of the plane around the axis of the first line, thus only has to lie in the plane.

So with cylinder end you can choose two sides of the diameter and the top of the circle. Click on "view the working plane" and move it to the center of the cylider end if desired.

For the side of a cylinder, click on the ends along one side and an opposite point on one end to place a plane through the centerline. Then 3D move the plane 1 radius to lay in on the side of the cylinder through the third point.

By the way, this exercise was only interesting if the cylinder had been rotated off the XYZ axis in the first place. But that's just what I'm dealing with.

2. Still looking for rules about when working planes move when switching views.

[ 02-05-2003, 12:53 PM: Message edited by: Spencer ]

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