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Reorient view normal (perpendicular) to selected plane/face/etc

Reorient view normal (perpendicular) to selected plane/face/etc

Reorient view normal (perpendicular) to selected plane/face/etc

(OP)
OK, I might be exceeding my daily quota of questions, but here goes:

Is there a way to reorient the view normal or perpendicular to a selected object on the screen, without changing the zoom level?

ie: while in some random 3D viewing angle, select a plane or face or 2D sketch object, and re-orient the view so that it is exactly perpendicular to that object, while not changing zoom level.

The view presets are nice, but they always reset the zoom level to fit-all-in, which is sometimes annoying (ie: when working on a sketch inside of a larger part or assembly)

Thanks!

RE: Reorient view normal (perpendicular) to selected plane/face/etc

I know F8 snaps to the closest plane.
Home and End snap to the 2 differnet ISO views.

Or you could do VIEW -> ORIENT

Justin Ackley
Design Engineer
jackley@gmail.com

RE: Reorient view normal (perpendicular) to selected plane/face/etc

(OP)
Hmm, ok I pressed the trigger to soon; I discovered that

1. While in Sketcher, you can go to:
View > Orient View to Sketch
to reorient normal to the active sketch.

2. To reorient the view normal to an object on the screen while not in Sketcher, go to:
View > Orient
and select the plane/face/2D sketch element
to reorient the view normal to that object.

Perhaps a hotkey could make 2. faster

Thanks.

RE: Reorient view normal (perpendicular) to selected plane/face/etc

(OP)
jackley,

F8 is crazy useful!

I did not know that until now - thank you.

RE: Reorient view normal (perpendicular) to selected plane/face/etc

Orient your WCS to the plane, if the surface is truly a plane you can use the inferred option and pick the plane. The 'z' direction of the WCS should now be normal to the plane, now orient your view to the current WCS. That should change your view without changing your zoom.

RE: Reorient view normal (perpendicular) to selected plane/face/etc

(OP)
F8 doesn't change zoom level either... and it's really fast.

RE: Reorient view normal (perpendicular) to selected plane/face/etc

F8 does look useful, I'll have to start using that. But it only seems to orient to the closest canned view (front, top, back, right, etc) not any arbitrary plane; for that I would use #2 that you listed above.

RE: Reorient view normal (perpendicular) to selected plane/face/etc

You guys are SO close it could've bit you.

Just select a face of the model that you wish to be seen parallel to the screen (note that this will even work in the context of an assembly) and then simply press F8.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product "Evangelist"
NX Product Line
UGS Corp
Cypress, CA
http://www.ugs.com

RE: Reorient view normal (perpendicular) to selected plane/face/etc

A point of clarity, this only works if the Face in planar, but it will also work with Datum Planes.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product "Evangelist"
NX Product Line
UGS Corp
Cypress, CA
http://www.ugs.com

RE: Reorient view normal (perpendicular) to selected plane/face/etc

Great stuff, thanks John.

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