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How to make a plane perpendicular to an arbitrary view
kenn_sebesta167
Member Posts: 63 ✭✭
I am working with some point cloud data, and the point cloud features don't nicely align with the world coordinate axes. That's fine, no need to worry. I can rotate around and align my viewport precisely perpendicular to, e.g., a tube or feature. Great! Now all I need to do to create an OnShape part is put down a plane and draw on it.
I don't really care how close or far away the plane is, as I can easily change the depth when it comes time to make the part. But changing angles is a lot of tedious effort in OnShape, and I wish I could just measure the view and draw from there.
The problem is that there doesn't seem to be a way to drop a plane in. Once I've rotated to the desired view, is there a way to do this?
Comments
Working with scan data can be challenging. Have you tried creating planes based on the mesh data? You may have to create multiple planes based on other planes or sketches to get the desired result.
can you do a 3-point plane on the mesh vertices to get what you're after? If not, I'd reach for Freeform Spline or Routing Curve to create a line in 3D space, then make a plane on the end of that. It allows you a lot of flexibility for making a plane at an arbitrary orientation. Here's an example (I'm editing with the "Final" button checked so you can see the plane feature update)
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/3caf95d652b8e1cd002135da/w/b81cd7a99b04f09ffafef017/e/311261435cafbc8673deecd4
No, cannot click the mesh points directly as they wouldn't have the same elevation. The resulting plane would not be perpendicular to the viewpoint.
Freeform spline looks fantastic. Tell me, how are you doing the witchcraft to show Plane 1 which in the timeline is constructed after the freeform spline? If I could do that, I could move forward perfectly with this tool.
When you're editing a feature there's a button that says "final" that will regenerate features downstream as you go.
Could a custom mate connector be used instead?
Perhaps! But @EvanReese's solution of Freeform Spline + the Final button works perfectly. Almost beyond perfectly, TBH. I've been using it this past week and it's almost too good to be true.
I showed this to some people in my org, and they were blown away as well. No idea how that flew under my radar for so long, but thanks so much for cluing me into it!
Glad to hear it! "Final" is so handy in so many ways.