Rotated Plane

This function creates a plane by rotating a principal plane around one of the principal axis.

Any principal plane already selected will be used as a base object, which means that rotated planes can be created from several base planes in a single operation. If there are no principal planes selected, you will be asked to define or select one or more.

When the base planes have been defined, the following form is shown:

Figure 2:35. For for creation and modification of a rotated plane.

The field Rotational Axis/Angle Axis: This field is used to define the line (parallel to the chosen principal axis) around which the base plane will be rotated, and thus also which principal axis to use for measuring the angle.

The Coord field: Coordinate along the chosen rotational axis, used for defining the line around which the plane will be rotated. Several coordinates may be specified at once with a repetition term on the form <first coordinate>(<spacing>)<last coordinate>[+/-offset]. For example, entering "LP3(2)7+500" (without quotes) in the Coord field will result in three new planes. The rotational lines of these planes will be defined by the base plane and Y=LP3+500, Y=LP5+500 and Y=LP7+500, respectively.

The Angle field: This field is used to define the angle between the angle axis and the resulting plane. Several angles may be specified at once with a repetition term on the form <first angle><spacing><last angle>. For example, entering "30(15)60" in the Angle field will result in three new planes, with an angle of 30, 45 and 60 degrees to the selected angle axis.

The rotational axis, the content of the Coord field, and the location of the base plane together define the line around which the new plane will be rotated. For example, assume that the base plane is located at X=FR50, the rotational axis is set to Y, and the coordinate value is set to 5000. Then the base plane will be rotated around the line (X,Y) = (FR50,5000). The angle will be measured against the X-axis in the X-Y plane ("XT"), where an angle of 0 indicates a direction along the positive direction of the X-axis. An angle greater than 0 will mean a rotation from the positive X-axis towards (or past) the positive direction of the Y-axis.

Note: The angle is always measured relative to the chosen angle axis, not to the base plane. This means that an angle of 0 degrees will result in a plane parallel to the chosen angle axis, and not that the base plane and the rotated plane will coincide.

The Apply button: Create one or more planes with the given input, but keep the form open. This is practical if several planes are to be created at irregular positions or angles. This button is displayed only when creating new planes.

The Ok button: Accept the input and create new planes or modify an existing one according to the input.

The Cancel button: Exit the function without creating or modifying any plane.