MHBrown Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 I've always only worked in screen plane, but from time to time I decide I need to try using different working planes. Right now, I have a table top that has a hole drilled in it (via solid subtraction). The top is tilted at 45 degrees, but I need to look at it in plan perpendicular to the face. When I switch to top/plan in screen mode it is, of course, showing me the plan of a tilted table. So I set the working plane to be parallel to the tilted table, assuming that I now have the x,y.z coordinates similarly tilted. When I select top/plan or even plan, however, I get the same, truncated view as when I was in screen mode. Why is that? When I'm in an isometric view the indication is that the x,y plane is indeed parallel with the tilted table. So why does my plan, left, right views not show it? Very confusing and not at all intuitive. If I change the x,y grid the other views should follow. I've seen some applications that use what they call j,k,l dimensions for a "temporary" change to the directions. This is not a good idea at all, but does VW use something like this? In summary: how do I look at a table top square on that is tilted at 45 degrees without temporarily swinging it up those 45 degrees? I'm sure I'm missing something simple, but not sure what that is. Thanks for any help. MHBrown Quote Link to comment
EAlexander Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 There is a button for looking directly at the workplane. I don't have it open in front of me, but I think the icon is a face with an arrow looking at the workplane grid. Be sure to open the workplane palette. You can save particular workplane set ups to get back to them easily. AFAIK, going back to top/plan resets the workplane to the default position. You have to specifically choose to look perpendicular to it once you've set it. Quote Link to comment
MHBrown Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 OK. thanks. That does sound like I was missing something simple. I'll give that a try! Appreciate the quick reply! Quote Link to comment
Gytis Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 Not sure what version you are using, but there is also a pretty cogent (I think) description in Vectorworks Help under "Using Working Planes." The alternate coordinate system with axes x', y' z' is also used-- used to be i, j, k but that could get confusing. Quote Link to comment
MHBrown Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 OK. thanks. That does sound like I was missing something simple. I'll give that a try! Appreciate the quick reply! Quote Link to comment
Andy Broomell Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 Also, note that the pink and blue buttons directly to the left of the Current View dropdown (where you can select top, left, right, etc), control whether those views are in relation to the Current Layer Plane or in relation to the Working Plane. If you switch to the pink button you might get the result you're expecting. (The exception is Top/Plan which is always in relation to Layer Plane and will reset your Working Plane, so use Top instead... or use the 'Look at Working Plane' button described earlier). Quote Link to comment
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