Hi Danny - that script above (in the next release) will place the cplane's origin at the viewport's rotation pivot point, with the the cplane x-axis oriented towards the view's current direction towards the right, and the cplane's y-axis oriented towards the view's current up direction. It doesn't matter what you had the cplane set to previously.

Are you saying you would prefer for the origin of the cplane to remain the same as it was previously and only have the orientation change to match the view's current directions? That would be possible to do as well with a small modification to the script.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

> Are you saying you would prefer for the origin
> of the cplane to remain the same as it was
> previously and only have the orientation
> change to match the view's current directions?

Yes, that would be great, in that way we could set up the cplane to the area we are working, orientate the view, then hit the script.

Thanks again

Hi Danny, the following script will do that in the next beta release:

script:/* Orient cplane to 3D view direction, keep same origin */ var frame = moi.ui.mainWindow.viewpanel.getViewport('3D').targetFrame; frame.origin = moi.view.getCPlane().origin; moi.view.setCPlane( frame );

- Michael

Hi Michael,

I have another Cplane request, can a CPlane translation be implemented when activated.
I couldn't see any space in the existing command UI for an XYZ value input, the only way I could see it work is to use the main numeric input field for a precise distance translation for XYZ.

BTW, I think I mentioned this before, when positioning the CPlane using construction lines, once done the construction lines hang around, they even come back when you do an undo.

Cheers

Could they be a temp reference to your new xy axis?

Hi Danny,

Yeah in general there aren't any XYZ values inside of command options, anything that needs an XYZ value uses the common XYZ input on the bottom command bar (next to the view tabs).

If you want to place the cplane at a specific XYZ coordinate, then you can enter that coordinate using that control at the first "Pick CPlane origin" prompt.

You can also enter a displacement then, by using the "Relative" point input - that's when you input a point value prefixed by "r", for example if you enter:

r5,5 <enter>

Then when you move the mouse around, you'll see that the point is offset by 5,5 from where it would normally be, so you can move your mouse to the cplane origin to get a snap there and you will then have a displacement from the current origin.


This displacement method for relative point input was a new function I added at some point in v2, it works in a general way when picking points in any command. Previously in MoI v1 you could only enter relative coordinates on a second pick, when a base point had been defined. But now in MoI v2 you can enter them when there is no base point to get this displacement/offset type behavior.


There's also another slightly different method - at the first "Pick CPlane origin" prompt, you can push Done or right-click there without actually picking a new point, which will place the cplane adjustment widget at the current cplane's location. Then when in the adjustment stage, you can either drag or click the cplane origin to a new location. To do a relative placement, click the origin point, so that you will now be placing the second point without the mouse held down. Then the current origin will be the base point for the point pick and you can enter in relative coordinates here as well, which in this case will displace from that base point.


Let me know if any of that doesn't make sense.


re: Construction lines during CPlane positioning - I had thought I fixed that up but it looks like I somehow made it worse or something, I'll take another look at that.


- Michael

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the run down, makes perfect sense and all the options are there.

Cheers

Hi Michael,

Is there away to resize the Cplane triad, when it's active at positioning stage. At the moment it's quite small in this particular model I'm doing.

_

Hi Danny, there is not currently any way to do that, I've added it to my list to try and figure out some way to automatically scale it to fit the current view.

- Michael

Hi Danny,

> Is there away to resize the Cplane triad, when it's active
> at positioning stage. At the moment it's quite small in this
> particular model I'm doing.

Actually, I forgot that there is a way to control it - it is actually based off of the grid size.

The triad arms are currently set to a length of 10 times the grid block size. So if it is too small for your current view, set the grid size to be larger and then it should be better.

There is a shortcut for setting the grid size on the little menu that pops up when you move your mouse over top of the "Grid Snap" button on the bottom command bar.

I'll see if I can tune it up to automatically make it somewhat larger if it would be small in the current 3D view though.

- Michael

Cool!
Thanks Michael.

-

Hi Michael,

Another Cplane question.

I have two sessions of MoI open, in one I have an assembly, in the other I have a a single item.
In the assembly I've orientated the Cplane to a different position and angle to the origin, I go to the the second session of MoI, copy the model and paste it into the assembly. I was expecting the item to be pasted in the current orientation of the Cplane in the assembly but this was not the case.

Any options?

Cheers

Hi Danny - copy and paste is set up to just literally duplicate objects, it does not attempt to modify the pasted objects in any way, like changing them in orientation or anything like that.

That could be a good idea for something to add in the future though.

In v3 I want to work on adding some various orientation tools to help with placing objects in relation to other pieces.

For v2 though you will need to use the Move, Rotate, or Rotate Axis Transform commands to adjust the orientation of the part to where you need it.

If you need some help with that, if you could post your model I could go through some steps for that.

- Michael

Hi Michael,
Sorry for the late reply.

> - copy and paste is set up to just literally
> duplicate objects, it does not attempt to
> modify the pasted objects in any way,
> like changing them in orientation or anything like that.

The thing is that's what I thought I was doing, duplicating the object from XYZ position and then pasting it at the XYZ position in the other session, I didn't think this was changing the orientation of the object, just changing the position of the work plane.

I use it all the time with my other app and thought it was a normal thing, it would be a great addition :)


Cheers

Hi Danny,

> The thing is that's what I thought I was doing, duplicating
> the object from XYZ position and then pasting it at the XYZ
> position in the other session, I didn't think this was changing
> the orientation of the object, just changing the position of
> the work plane.

I'm not sure if I follow - currently the way it works is that your object is exactly duplicated when you paste, no coordinates are changed, every single XYZ coordinate of your copied object should be exactly the same when you paste in. (with the exception of unit system scaling if there were different units between the copied model and the one you are pasting into).

When you set up a construction plane, you are not actually changing the coordinates for objects that are stored in the geometry database (which are always stored in world coordinates), you're just basically changing your view on to the world and the surface that is used for the initial position of newly drawn objects.

To change an object from one construction plane to a different plane somewhere else, would involve remapping and changing all the coordinates of the objects. I thought that was what you were asking about?

I could see having that as a kind of special paste function, but it seems to be good to leave the regular paste as operating in a simple "just duplicate things with no changes" way.

- Michael

This would be a powerful addition. The ability to have the objects interact with the current working plane.

Even having it as a tick that can be turned on and off would be the optimal choice for me. Whether Globally, or preferably by object. Like a browser pane setting. Set As Global or local object. :O

Hi Michael,

This looks like another case where the 3d Mech eng apps that I've used don't really follow that 'Autocad philosophy' (if you can call it that)
for example in NX if I have two modeling sessions open, one is empty and the other has a rectangular planar surface lying on the XY plane, I copy this surface then go to the empty session, rotate the work co-ordinates 90° around X then when I paste the surface it will come in on the current XY plane but in absolute it is actually on the ZX plane.

That's the only way I can explain it, hope it makes sense.
If you need more info I'll have to show you graphically.

-

Thats how my CAM package works too Danny. I would like the abilty to have it work "either way" that I set. Global or local.

Hi Danny, yeah I understand what you mean. But yes that is probably tied into the "2D sketch plane" nature of MCAD type stuff.

Possibly in the NX case that you are talking about, the object is defined by an underlying 2D sketch that only has 2D coordinates in it, and then that is associated with a plane.

MoI doesn't really work like that, objects in MoI are always full 3D objects. Even when you draw 2D shapes in MoI, those are just 3D objects that happen to have z = 0.

Like you mention, that's similar to AutoCAD (and also many 3D animation systems) where there is just one large environment that you work in and not a separate "Part modeler" and "assembly modeler" as 2 different applications that you switch between.


Construction planes in MoI are not necessarily only used as a "part modeling" coordinate system, they can also be used as just a general modeling aid to help you draw stuff in a particular spot. Someone that had set a construction plane in some location to just help with some drawing could easily get surprised if they then decide to copy and later paste some other object that happened to be off to the side somewhere. That's why I don't think it is safe to reorient objects automatically when pasting as a default way of doing things.


I was thinking about it some, and what seems like it would work would be to have an additional "PastePart" command that would work the way you want. It could be set up on the right-click on Paste. There could also be a similar "ImportPart" that was set up as a right-click on File/Import for doing a similar thing but bringing the pieces in from a file you pick.


That seems like it could give you the tools to make things work similar to the kind of thing where there are separate "Part" and "assembly" workspaces like you are probably used to.


In Rhino, the way I set up cplanes originally was that they were per-viewport, where every viewport had its own cplane. In MoI I wanted to simplify this and I shifted to having just one global cplane, which seems to be working well since it should make it easier to have a "part modeling" kind of support like you had expected.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

> Possibly in the NX case that you are talking about,
> the object is defined by an underlying 2D sketch
> that only has 2D coordinates in it, and then that
> is associated with a plane.

I'm doing all this in 3d space just like MoI, the planar surface was an example, I can copy and paste this way with anything modeled no sketch involved.

> MoI doesn't really work like that, objects
> in MoI are always full 3D objects. Even
> when you draw 2D shapes in MoI, those
> are just 3D objects that happen to have z = 0.

Yep, same in NX.

> Like you mention, that's similar to AutoCAD
> (and also many 3D animation systems) where
> there is just one large environment that you work
> in and not a separate "Part modeler" and "assembly modeler"
> as 2 different applications that you switch between.

That's partly correct, NX also works in one large environment, the modeling and assembly are done under 'Modeling' then you have a 'Sketcher' and your 2d 'Drafting'
One of the main reasons I use MoI is because of the same functionality and feel to the MCAD programs that I've used, especially in their earlier days before they were bloated.

> I was thinking about it some, and what seems
> like it would work would be to have an additional
> "PastePart" command that would work the way
> you want. It could be set up on the right-click
> on Paste. There could also be a similar "ImportPart"
> that was set up as a right-click on File/Import for
> doing a similar thing but bringing the pieces in
> from a file you pick.

Those two functions would be a great addition to MoI.

Thanks again for looking into this.

Cheers