Construction > Plane

Creates a reference plane.

You can set the construction planes from reference planes, or use them as input to tools that require a plane.

Reference planes and construction planes

The following tools are used to create a general-purpose plane which can be used as a reference plane or a construction plane:

A reference plane can be used with certain tools, including the Curve Edit > Curve Planarize tool, Curve Edit > Curve Section tool, and the Cross Section Control section of the Control Panel.

A construction plane allows you to temporarily use a separate coordinate system that can be arbitrarily oriented with respect to the world space coordinate system.

You can easily convert a reference plane to a construction plane and vice versa.

Construction planes and the Perspective window

When a construction plane is active, placement in the perspective window is constrained to the construction plane. This includes:

Mouse buttons in construction planes

You can choose between the following mouse behaviors when using Transform > Move in a perspective window with an active construction plane:

or

To change between the two control schemes, choose Preferences > General Preferences  , go to the Input section, and set the Mouse mapping for perspective move: On construction plane option.

Construction Plane Options

Show Name

Show the name of the plane next to it in the view window. This option is off by default.

Creation Type

Select the type of construction plane to create.

View – This is a 1-point construction plane where you specify the center point of the plane. The plane is oriented so that the Z-axis is parallel to the view vector. You can also snap the point to any geometry.

3 Pt – This is the regular 3-point construction plane where you completely define the plane by inputting three points.

World – This is also a 1-point plane. You specify the center point and the three axes are oriented along the world axes. You can snap the point to any geometry.

Slice – This is a new type of plane where you specify 2 points. The third point is placed at the eye position so that you are looking at the plane from the edge. This type of plane is useful for defining cross sections.

Geom – This lets you snap the center point of the plane to geometry so the plane is oriented parallel to the view plane.

Note:

View, Geom and World planes have manipulators that you can use to tweak the orientation of the plane.