Keeping the Privileged Plane the Most Visible

Keeping the privileged plane visible during viewpoint manipulations is useful for both creation and modification commands. However, it is not useful when simply using the Select command but only when running application commands that use manipulators which require working planes (for example, when creating planar patches or modifying control points).

Related Topics
Selecting Objects

  1. Open any product with a planar patch.

  2. Select Start > Shape > FreeStyle.

  3. Select the planar patch in the geometry area.

  4. Click Control Points in the Shape Modification toolbar.

    Control points appear on the patch.

  5. Point to a control point on the patch.

    Manipulators appear:

    By default, manipulators are oriented in the same plane as the privileged plane of the Robot, in the XY plane.

  6. In the Control Points dialog box, click Cancel to close the dialog box.

  7. Click anywhere in the geometry area and drag the Robot onto the patch.

    The Robot is aligned in the following direction:

  8. Drop the Robot onto the patch as follows then click Control Points once again:

    The Robot has now detected the orientation of the patch:

    Note: The manipulators, by default, are oriented in the same plane as the privileged plane of the Robot.

  9. Drag the Robot away from the patch and drop it into empty space (in other words, not on another object).

    The Robot keeps the same orientation:

  10. Manipulate the viewpoint for example, by rotating.

    Because rotating the viewpoint also rotates the Robot, the privileged plane may be more or less visible. When you work with commands that use manipulators which require working planes, it may be difficult to work if the privileged plane is not always clearly visible.

    The manipulators are oriented like this:



  11. Right-click the Robot and select Make Privileged Plane Most Visible.

    This time, the privileged plane is forced to be the most visible: the Robot and the manipulators are reoriented accordingly:

  12. Continue to rotate.

    You notice that, as you rotate, the privileged plane switches, the Robot is reoriented accordingly, so that the privileged plane always remains clearly visible. Each time this happens, the manipulators are also repositioned in the new privileged plane.