Triad Manipulator

r3l4tivity

I think the use of a Triad Manipulator in Part Studio and while sketching would greatly increase the UI, making it more user friendly. Allow you to freely rotate, and drag seamlessly between planes.

lougallo

@R3L4TIVITY Can you explain this further?  I would like to better understand the use cases.

r3l4tivity

Hi @LouGallo, sorry i was away for the weekend.

What I mean by this is that, I'm working on recreating an disc insert for my skydiving helmet which will also have a GoPro mount as a feature. This disc has holes on its curved face which isn't located parallel to either the front or right plane.



I've create a cylinder the size of the holes so I may cut into the curved face. The purpose of these holes is so I may rotate the disc within the mount at various degrees which will lock in place by the locking pin.

In order for me to even come close to getting to one of these holes, I need to sketch on the nearest plane (right or front) but it never lines up according to the needs of the mount itself. However, if a triad manipulator was introduced in the parts studio, then I could sketch a cylinder from any plane and manipulate it so it can line up with my desired location, remove a section from the disc when in the Extrude Dialog Box.

Hope this make a bit more sense.

mikael_jaakkola

That´s a interesting idea that a sketch could be moved by a triad manipulator. Could it be possible to add similar triad as in assembly mode to the transform feature, to freely move and rotate a body and why not also be able to do the same thing to sketches?

kevin_quigley

Use case for triad is moving sketch points in 3D...once we get 3D sketches

andrew_troup

Kevin Quigley said:

Use case for triad is moving sketch points in 3D...once we get 3D sketches

As the old saying goes: "If only we had some ham, we could have ham and eggs!
(If we had some eggs)"
:-)  

andrew_troup

duplicate post, deleted

andrew_troup

@R3L4TIVITY  : Can you provide a plane, passing through the revolve axis of your disk, and through the axis of one of your holes? (Presumably but not necessarily at 45 deg to a main construction plane) You could then sketch a line, normal to the local curve, to be the axis for a revolved cut, which would represent one of your holes.

traveler_hauptman

@R3L4TIVITY If I understand correctly, you are unable to create the holes you want and proposing a new tool to accomplish that? If so, the tools are there already. As Andrew hinted at above, it is currently possible and straightforward to do what you want to do. In addition to Andrews approach which uses a midplane and revolves, you can orient the holes by using the construction plane tool. A circular pattern of the hole faces should also work.

Here's an example showing both approaches, a pattern and individual holes at non-regular angles.
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/f9ac05ab3c2a477bb651a6d2/w/7987509e45de4400bc31438f/e/0f4aff769390492980993e5f

r3l4tivity

@Andrew_Troup @Traveler_Hauptman Thanks guys for giving 2 great views on how to achieve my goal. I understand both ideas and will have to try them out. Perhaps because of my beginner level to anything CAD, I find these methods complicated (although I'm sure they are very simple once you have seen it or understand the logic behind it, the picture emerges). Maybe in the future, having a triad manipulator as a tool in the Part Studio could potentially come useful.

Cheers

Once my idea is completed I will posted back here.

traveler_hauptman

@R3L4TIVITY Two more approaches that are more like your triad idea. You can use 'move face' and rotate the face X degrees about the center, or you can create a solid extrusion, use 'move part' to rotate it how you like, and then use boolean->subtract to create the hole.

The problem with a triad is that it is not clear where the triad should be placed. For you, placing it in the center would work. But this would not work for other people with other situations. 

Meanwhile if you actually want to build the part in a reliable way, you will have to set real numbers for the transform.