Creating angled reference planes 1

[sixmillionways]

Hi, wondering if anyone can help me. I cannot work out how to create an angled reference plane (when the angle is not known).

If I have two parallel ref planes, and another two ref planes intersecting them at 90° which are also parallel with each other, I can create four separate parallel ref axis where those four planes intersect.

My question is: how do I then create another ref plane which joins two of those ref axis which are at an unknown angle from each other? None of the ref plane creation options seems to enable you to create a plane between two parallel ref axis.

Sorry if my explaination is confusing.

 

[SincoTC]

Select the first parallel Plane you want to bridge with an angled Ref Plane, create a sketch on it and draw a line where you want the plane to intersect (this can also be at an angle), then exit the sketch. Now create a sketch on the other parallel plane and insert a point where you want the Ref Plane to intersect and exit the sketch. Finally Ctrl Select both the line and the point before selecting insert Reference Plane and yiu will get the plane passing through the Line and Point. The individual sketches can now be edited for position if required and the plane will follow.

I hope this helps.

Trevor Clarke. (R & D) Scientific Instruments.Somerset. UK

SW2007x64 SP3.0 Pentium P4 3.6Ghz, 4Gb Ram ATI FireGL V7100 Driver: 8.323.0.0
SW2007x32 SP4.0 Pentium P4 3.6Ghz, 2Gb Ram NVIDIA Quadro FX 500 Driver: 6.14.10.7756

 

[DraftingMan]

sixmillionways,

Just add some sketches to your planes which are collinear to the axis you already have then you will be able to add a plane. This plane will us the "Throught Lines/Points" settings and will pass through the axis you need.





John H. Dunten, CD
Certified Drafter

 

[Timelord]

The simplest and quickest way would be to use a 3D sketch to constrain a single point on one of the axes and then use the line & point method with the other axis to make your plane.

Timelord

 

[sixmillionways]

Thanks for your input guys, problem solved

It does seem a bit strange to me that there is no option to link two parallel reference axis with a reference plane...

 

[dgowans]

I'm not surprised there is no option to define a plane by using 2 parallel axes because this is a very specialized case. You cannot mathematically define a plane using 2 lines, you must have a line and a point.

In the case of 2 parallel axes, the plane that results from placing a point on one of the axes is identical regardless of the location of the point. With 2 non-parallel axes, the definition of the plane changes as the location of the point changes.

If Solidworks allowed you to define a plane through 2 parallel axes, what would happen if the definition of one of the axes changed such that it was no longer parallel with the other? My guess is a software crash...

 

[SincoTC]

Exactly! To use SW terminology, the use of two parallel axes would "over define" the Plane and it could easily become "unsolvable" and leave you staring at the hourglass.

Trevor Clarke. (R & D) Scientific Instruments.Somerset. UK

SW2007x64 SP3.0 Pentium P4 3.6Ghz, 4Gb Ram ATI FireGL V7100 Driver: 8.323.0.0
SW2007x32 SP4.0 Pentium P4 3.6Ghz, 2Gb Ram NVIDIA Quadro FX 500 Driver: 6.14.10.7756

 

[handleman]

I certainly agree that two axes would overdefine the plane. However, I don't think the result would be anything so extreme as a crash or an hourglass - just a simple rebuild error.

-handleman, CSWP (The new, easy test)

 

[mjcole]

3D sketch is the way to go. All you'd need would be a point on one axis and if only you could make a point at the intersection of an Axis and a Plane that would be the day right now it can only be done with the 3d sketch.

Or you can do a plane through one axis at an angle to a planr and derive the angle by
ANG = atan(A/B) where A is the Spacing between the first set of parallel planes and B is the distance between the others perpendicular to the first.

Michael