Evan,
Re the two datum target pts establishing a datum pt, try this mental exercise;
First, poing your two index fingers at each other, as if using them as a set of opposed datum target points. Next, visualize a line between the tangent points (i.e. closest points to each other). Accepting that opposed features establish a center value (plane, line, point) of some kind is the first step; this is no different from working with FOS (Features of Size). So, at the center location between these two datum points, you have one of the following; a plane, an axis, or a point. A plane requires the establishment of three points in space (minimum), so the two opposed points don't establish a plane directly. Similarly, a line (axis) requires two points in space; again, not what you have at that center value. All that is left is a single point as the center value. That datum point has three mutually perpendicular planes associated with it, all meeting at the datum point. The problem most of us face is what we do with the datum planes that we're not using from each of the datums. In this example, Datum Z establishes one plane, Datum Y establishes one plane, but Datum X establishes three planes while only one is needed to complete the DRF. So we use the one which is mutually perpendicular to Datums Z & Y as the third origin of measurement, and ignore the other two.
Here's something similar, though not quite the same.
Datum A establishes the first datum plane, Datum B gives you an axis with its two datum planes ... that's three datum planes and three origins of measurement already. Datum C, however, adds a fourth datum plane ... which is not used as an origin of measurement, but only to lock down the orientation of the planes established by Datum B. I included this graphic because it is often overlooked that Datum C is indeed a datum plane, but it happens (in this case) to be coplanar with one of the Datum B planes.
Hopefully that helps rather than muddles things.
Jim Sykes, P.Eng, GDTP-S
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