Planar Movement Handles

Each of the planar movement handles constrains the drag operation such that the Graphical Selection moves only in the plane of the selected handle. The handle moves in steps determined by the current Movement Increment setting.

To initiate a planar drag, you press the left mouse button down over one of the planar movement handles. With the left button still pressed, moving the mouse drags the Graphical Selection constrained in the selected plane, in steps defined by the movement increment.

Feedback

A triangle is displayed on the current constraint plane, between the original position of the handle and the current position. The relative movement distances are shown on the sides of the triangle. The current World position of the Locator Handle is displayed on the status bar. All values are shown in the current selected units.

The Locator Handle changes to a simple version of the full handle to show the plane of movement as shown below.

As the mouse moves over a planar handle the pointer symbol changes to the planar drag symbol.

A Planar Handle has the following movement operations on its shortcut menu:

Enter Valuesº

This command shows the following form.

The fields corresponding to the selected plane are activated for input. In this case, entering 8000 in the X field and 4000 in the Z field tells the Graphical Selection to move by X8000mm Z4000mm in the XZ plane of the Locator Handle.

Align with Feature¼

This facility allows you to position the Graphical Selection in relation to another object on the screen, but forces the Graphical Selection to move only in the selected plane. The sequence of operations is as follows:

1. Make a Graphical Selection.

2. (Optional) Position the Locator Handle at the required datum position.

3. Select Align with Feature¼ from the planar handle.

4. Move the mouse to the target feature. A marker appears at the target point, and the mouse pointer changes shape to indicate that the Graphical Selection will be aligned with the target position if the left mouse button is clicked.

5. Click the left mouse button to move the Graphical Selection to the target position.

Point feature Alignment

When positioning the Graphical Selection to a point feature, the origin of the Locator Handle is aligned with the target point such that the target point is projected onto the plane of movement. For example, the picture above shows the target P1 P-point position being projected onto the plane of movement of the Graphical Selection.

Alignment with a Line or P-line Feature

If a planar move is to be aligned with a line feature, then the Locator Handle origin is placed where the extended feature line or P-point direction intersects with the movement plane. For example, in the following picture, the handrail is dragged in a horizontal plane, with the bottom of the first post positioned where the top of the stringer intersects with the plane. The feature selected is an edge on the top of the stringer.

Offset From Feature

This facility allows the user to position the Graphical Selection at an offset from a selected feature on the screen, the Graphical Selection is constrained to move in the plane of the Planar Handle.

The user must make a Graphical Selection on the screen with the Model Editor selected. To do this, right click the required planar handle, from the shortcut menu, select Offset From Feature.

The Offset From Feature window is displayed:

The user must enter the distance to which the Graphical Selection will be positioned. From the Offset From Feature window, in the Distance field type in the required distance.

Click OK to close the window, or click Cancel to discard any inputs and close the window.

The user must select the feature on the screen to position the Graphical Selection at an offset from.

To do this, drag the planar handle to select the feature to offset the Graphical Selection from.

Snap To Pointº

Snap To Point¼ allows the Graphical Selection to be moved to a Point feature. The Graphical Selection is not constrained to move in the plane of the Linear Handle. This is described in Positioning and Orientation Using the Edit Menu.

Move Handle

The Move Handle submenu provides the same movement commands as the main Planar Handle menu, but these commands move the Locator Handle only. They do not move the Graphical Selection.

The Locator Handle may be moved independently of the Graphical Selection in order to change the datum position for the next operation on the Graphical Selection.