Explore the power of using the construct panel in a model workspace and discover its array of tools including plane, axis, and points. These tools enable the creation of construction geometry in your model, offering useful reference points for future commands.
Key Insights
- The construct panel includes tools such as plane, axis, and points that enable the creation of construction geometry in a model, providing useful reference points for future commands.
- The tools in the construct panel can be used in a variety of ways to create different types of planes and axes, such as offset planes, planes at angles, midplanes, and axes through cylinders, among others.
- Points, another feature in the construct panel, can be placed through any two edges that share the same plane and can be used when referencing geometry that builds or cuts into a model.
In this video we will talk about the construct panel in the model workspace. The construct panel has tools such as plane, axis, and points, and these tools can be used to create construction geometry in our model.
Construction geometry can be useful for when we need to reference one of these objects in a future command. I will start by looking at the offset plane, and the offset plane is asking me to select a reference plane, I will select here, and then you can drag up or down an offset plane from that original plane. I will type 15, enter, and now you see a plane in my model.
You will also notice that a construction folder has been added to our component, and my plane has been entered as plane 1. This orange shape is representing the plane, but this plane extends infinitely in every direction, so I can grab the corners of my orange plane and change the size if I want a different visual representation. I will go ahead and hide this plane, and now I can go to construct, and let's create plane at angle. This creates a plane at an angle along an edge or line.
I will zoom in down here, select this edge, and now you will see a plane beginning to be generated, and I can rotate at a specific angle. I will type negative 30, enter. This is useful for when I need to create geometry that may need to enter my existing part at a specific angle.
Let's hide that plane, and next is tangent plane. This is similar to plane at angle, but it will allow me to place a plane at any angle along a cylindrical face. Again, I can change the size of my plane by clicking and dragging on the corners.
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Let's hide that plane, and next let's go construct midplane. This is a very common plane construction technique where you select two faces, and Fusion will automatically generate a plane directly in the middle of those two faces. I will hit OK, and again let's hide this plane.
Next are the axis tools. These tools are useful especially when doing the revolve command, but can be used in a variety of different ways. The most common axis is an axis through cylinder, cone, torus, and this places an axis directly in the middle of a cylindrical face.
Axes can be edited just like planes can be edited by clicking and dragging to change their length. Again, this is just the visual representation of our axis and does not actually change its location or direction. I will hide that axis, and next I will look at axis perpendicular to face at point.
Again, axes can be used in a variety of different tools, but this tool specifically allows us to create an axis that may be perpendicular to a face, but where no geometry is present. I will hit OK, and let's hide that axis as well. Finally in the construct panel, there are multiple different ways to place points in your model.
I will go point through two edges, and this will allow me to place a point through any two edges that share the same plane. I will select this edge, and this edge, and you will see a point placed in my model here. I'll hit OK.
Points can be used when referencing geometry that can either build or cut into our model, and is sometimes necessary to get exactly the right result. I will hide that point, go to my home view, and I will see you in the next video.
