Draft SelectPlane

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Revision as of 19:39, 18 November 2018 by Vocx (talk | contribs) (More details on the options)

Draft SelectPlane

Menu location
Draft → Utilities → Select Plane
Workbenches
Draft, Arch
Default shortcut
W P
Introduced in version
-
See also
Draft SetWorkingPlaneProxy

Description

The Draft Workbench features a working plane system. A plane in the 3D view indicates where a Draft shape will be built. There are several methods to define the working plane:

  • From a selected face.
  • From three selected vertices.
  • From the current view.
  • From a preset: top, front, bottom, or lateral.
  • None, in which case the working plane is adapted automatically to the current view when you start a command, or to a face if you start drawing on an existing face.

How to use

Without element selected

  1. Press the SelectPlane button.
  2. Select the offset, the grid spacing, and the main lines
  3. Select one of the presets: XY (top), XZ (front), YZ (side), View, or Auto.

Once the plane is set, the button will change to indicate the active plane Top, Front, Side, Auto, d(0.0,-1.0,0.0).

With element selected

  1. Select a face of an existing object in the 3D view, or hold Ctrl and select three vertices of any object. introduced in version 0.17
  2. Press the SelectPlane button.

The plane will be created aligned to the face of the object, or to the plane defined by the three vertices.

Options

  • Press the XY (top) button to set the working plane on the XY plane. To easily draw on this plane, you should set the view to the top or bottom (the normal is in the positive or negative Z direction). Press 2 or 5 to quickly switch to these views.
  • Press the XZ (front) button to set the working plane on the XZ plane. To easily draw on this plane, you should set the view to the front or rear (the normal is in the negative or positive Y direction). Press 1 or 4 to quickly switch to these views.
  • Press the YZ (side) button to set the working plane on the YZ plane. To easily draw on this plane, you should set the view to the left or right side (the normal is in the positive or negative X direction). Press 3 or 6 to quickly switch to these views.
  • Press the View button to set the working plane to the current 3D view, perpendicular to the camera axis and passing through the origin (0,0,0).
  • Press the Auto button to unset any current working plane, and automatically set a working plane when a tool is used. When a drawing tool is selected the grid will be automatically updated to the current view; then, if the view is rotated, and another tool is selected, the grid redraws in the new view. This is equivalent of pressing View automatically before using a tool.
  • Set the "Offset" value to set the working plane at a certain perpendicular distance from the plane you selected.
  • Set the "Grid spacing" value to define the space between each line in the grid.
  • Set the "Main line every" value to draw a slightly thicker line in the grid at the set value. For example, if the grid spacing is 0.5 m, and there is a main line every 20 lines, there will be slightly thicker line every 10 m.
  • Click on the "Center plane on view" checkbox to draw the plane and grid closer to the camera view in the 3D view.

Scripting

Working plane objects can easily be created and manipulated in scripts and macros. You can create your own, and use them independently of the current Draft working plane.

Example:

import WorkingPlane
myPlane = WorkingPlane.plane()

You can also access the current Draft working plane:

import FreeCAD
draftPlane = FreeCAD.DraftWorkingPlane

To move or rotate the Draft working plane (see the WorkingPlane API page for available methods):

import FreeCAD
from FreeCAD import Vector
FreeCAD.DraftWorkingPlane.alignToPointAndAxis(Vector(0,0,0), Vector(1,1,1).normalize(), 17)

(note: a Draft command must have been issued to make grid adopt changes)

The working plane has a complete scripting API on its own, with convenience functions to position it and convert to/from placements.