Orienting an object to lay flat on the TOP/PLAN plane

[Nick Pecher]

Is there a shortcut for getting an object which has been drawn at an odd angle to basically "lay it down" flat on one of the standard planes? I'm prepping an object for CNC fabrication, but need to be able to orient it so that it lays flat on the TOP plane. Normally I'd extract a face and place it on the Screen plane, but this is a complex object (see attachment for reference).

 

Any thoughts are appreciated :)

[Nick Pecher]

Additional angle:

 

[michaelk]

Great question.

 

Stupid question:  Have you tried Modify > Unrotate 3D Objects?

 

 

[Nick Pecher]

4 minutes ago, michaelk said:

Great question.

 

Stupid question:  Have you tried Modify > Unrotate 3D Objects?

 

 

Had no idea that command existed! Here's what it produced:

 

 

If it helps, this object began as a 3D Polyline that I drew at an angle.

[Pat Stanford]

It looks like the object is rotated in all three axis. 

 

I would probably start in a Top view and use the Rotate tool to make it square with the axis. Then switch to a side view and use the Rotate tool to make it parallel to the layer plane. Then move it up or down to meet the plane you want.

 

Could you use a Viewport instead of physically moving the object? Either model the object flat and then use a Design Layer Viewport to move it where you need it in the overall model or model it in place and create a viewport to get the plan layout?

[Nick Pecher]

3 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

It looks like the object is rotated in all three axis. 

 

I would probably start in a Top view and use the Rotate tool to make it square with the axis. Then switch to a side view and use the Rotate tool to make it parallel to the layer plane. Then move it up or down to meet the plane you want.

 

Could you use a Viewport instead of physically moving the object? Either model the object flat and then use a Design Layer Viewport to move it where you need it in the overall model or model it in place and create a viewport to get the plan layout?

I feel dumb. Rotating from each angle Rubiks-cube style worked like a charm! Thank you so much!

 

Here's the result of rotating it from a few different standard angles:

 

[Kevin McAllister]

Use the Align Plane tool (its under the Set Working Plane tool in the 3d Modelling Toolset). Make sure the working plane is set to the ground plane. Select your object and then the Align Plane tool. Click on the origin of your surface, the x axis of your surface and the y axis of your surface. Your object will orient to the ground plane.

 

Kevin

 

[Andy Broomell]

There is also a tool in the 3D Modeling toolset called "Align Plane" which is helpful in scenarios like this.

 

(Kevin posted at the same time and was much more helpful haha)

 

 

Edited October 28, 2020 by Andy Broomell

[Nick Pecher]

8 minutes ago, Kevin McAllister said:

Use the Align Plane tool (its under the Set Working Plane tool in the 3d Modelling Toolset). Make sure the working plane is set to the ground plane. Select your object and then the Align Plane tool. Click on the origin of your surface, the x axis of your surface and the y axis of your surface. Your object will orient to the ground plane.

 

Kevin

 

Okay, that's way too cool of a tool; never noticed that one before. Vectorworks has all kinds of surprises!

[Nick Pecher]

Thank you everyone! I've successfully resolved the issue, and learned a couple ways on how to fix it in the future. Thank you all so much 🙂