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Why are the intersections of plans not axes?
w_s856
Member Posts: 29 ✭
I always wondered why I could not choose the intersections of planes as revolution axes:
I have a workaround for that: creating a construction line that matches the axis and revolve around that. This seems however to be an extra step that could be avoided by just using (in my case) the "natural" axis x, y or z.
Best Answers
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MDesign
Member Posts: 150 ✭✭
I believe your work around is actually the intended behavior although it doesn't have to be a construction line. And in your case why not pick the line in your sketch for the axis?
Having.said that I've at times had a similar need for revolve axis that are at intersecting planes that I needed to create an extra sketch for..it does seem to make sense to infer that intersecting planes are a line. Couple of ways I could see that workflow going.
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_anton
Member, Onshape Employees Posts: 410 
The Revolve feature would have to figure out that the other plane is indeed orthogonal (or at least not parallel) to the sketch plane and then compute the intersection of the two. Which is possible, though, when viewed from any other direction, the workflow might look weird. You could just intersect the plane with the sketch to form a line.
My revolves tend to use either a line (if available) or a mate connector.
1
Answers
I believe your work around is actually the intended behavior although it doesn't have to be a construction line. And in your case why not pick the line in your sketch for the axis?
Having.said that I've at times had a similar need for revolve axis that are at intersecting planes that I needed to create an extra sketch for..it does seem to make sense to infer that intersecting planes are a line. Couple of ways I could see that workflow going.
You could use the mate connector button, and select the origin point. the default mate connector created there will rotate around the Z-axis.
within that mate connector you could check re-align and the front or right plane to rotate around the Y or X axis respectively.
You could also create a separate and acurately named sketch at the top of the feature tree with some lines to define a revolve axis (or draft direction) if you want to reference it a lot and don't want it to be affected by geometry changes in your geometry defining sketch.
The Revolve feature would have to figure out that the other plane is indeed orthogonal (or at least not parallel) to the sketch plane and then compute the intersection of the two. Which is possible, though, when viewed from any other direction, the workflow might look weird. You could just intersect the plane with the sketch to form a line.
My revolves tend to use either a line (if available) or a mate connector.
I think it actually would be a nice workflow if you could create reference geometry features while creating another feature.
Sometimes I get halfway through setting up a feature and realise I haven't created some required bit of geometry, so have to discard the information, create the reference then re-input the info.
It'd be nice to shortcut that.
In most cases in Onshape you can actually accept the feature "as -is" (even if it's failing/incomplete) and roll back to add your geometry before editing the feature again. So in most cases you don't have to discarding the work you've done even if you have to add something.
Also anytime you can use a mate connector (like for a revolve) you effectively have the ability to add and edit that on the fly.