datum plane normal to curve

[storey_bishoff]

Hello. I'm using wildfire 3.0 and am trying to create a set of datum planes normal to a sketched curve at different points along the curve.


I can select the curve as reference in the datum plane window and can also select a vertex on my model as a through point but Pro E leaves the OK button greyed out. What am I missing? One post talks about selecting the curve as a through point and as a normal reference but I don't seem to be able to select the same curve twice as a reference.


What is the best way to do this?


Thanks,


John

 

[csusie]

There are 2 ways to do this-


1. Pick the point first then hold control and select the curve (will automatically make the curve a normal reference rather than a through reference)


2. Pick curve first then convert reference type from through to normal, then hold control and pick the point.


Either way will work.

 

[storey_bishoff]

Thanks for the suggestion. What you are describing makes sense to me but doesn't seem to work. Maybe I should give a bit more detail. I have a sketched curve and also an imported STL (set of vertexes and planes).

If I pick the curve as a reference, set the type to normal then select a vertex from my STL the OK on the datum plane window is still greyed out even though this should be enough to define the plane.

If I pick an STL vertex first then try to select the curve even though the mouse over tells me I am on the curve object when I select it picks up a nearby vertex instead.

Picking three vertices works as expected but doesn't put the plane where I want. Perhaps this is a bug? Does a vertex in the STL not qualify as a point?

 

[csusie]

I was refering to the scenerio where the point is actually on the sketched curve.


The OK is greyed out because the plane is underconstrained. On your particular curve there may not be multiple solutions to normal to the curve and through the vertex, but I can see on many curves the there would be multiple solutions to being normal to the curve and through a specific vertex.


Think of this scenerio: Sketched curve is a circle. Vertex is at the center of the circle. There are infinate solutions to create that datum plane.

 

[storey_bishoff]

Thanks. I'll give it another try.

 

[Zaki]

What r u missing is the ctrl key. select anything (curve or point) first, while pressing the ctrl key select secont thing and it will be ok.