3D coordinate system

Hey all

I sit and try to understand a 3D coordinate system in SolidWorks X =
right Y =up Z = off the screen.

I think it would be more correct if Z = up, it seems difficult to
explain why I would, therefore, I hope that one can explain to me why
just a 3D coordinate system is as it is.

From
Martin Wendler

 

Depends what you are used to. X=right and Y=up makes sense in the 2D
world. Perhaps it's an AutoCrayon holdover. You can always redefine
your default views to match your little heart's desire. Like an
Appalachian wedding, it's all relative.

You could take a page from Ayn Rand and disregard up, down, left,
right, etc. all together. "A is A,", Ayn did say. Thus, X is X, Y is
Y, and Z is Z. No relativist terminology can change that.

 

See "Right Hand Rule" FWIW.
And "Cartesian coordinate system".
X-Y plane is usually default screen ...

 

A 3D coordinate system refers to the real world not your computer display.
normlly x refers left to right y front to rear z bottom to top.

Bob

 

search "right hand rule"

 

that would be a 3rd angle 3d co-ordinat system.

Bob

 

Z is up if and only if you are sketching on the TOP plane or a plane
parallel to the TOP plane.

In mechanical engineering drawings the FRONT view customarily is the
view with the most information in it and with a few exceptions is the
way you would view the part if it was sitting on the desk in front of
you hence Y is up.

IIRC
In the FRONT plane y = Y, x = X, z = Z
In the RIGHT plane y = Y, x = -Z, z = X
In the TOP plane y = -Z, x = X, z = Y

where lower case is the sketch plane coordinate system and uppercase is
the GLOBAL coordinate system.

These conventions only hold true for the three predefined planes. All
other planes are subject to normal flipping which means that the sign
can change without warning if you are not careful.

TOP

 

as someone already said,
x = x
y = y
z = z

so it dosen't really matter, it's all relative.
you can turn it any way you want.

 

You're missing a golden opportunity to teach yourself how to reorient
default views. You can make "Front", "Right", "Top" be whatever you
want in SolidWorks.

You can choose to remain helpless and simply cry about how you don't
like SW's default orientation, or you can change it to your liking.

 

Exactly, hence the reason for those wonderful things called templates

 

Say what?

TOP

 

I like to consider the default orientation of whatever modeling program I am
using. It is less messy when moving objects from one software to another.
When doing the 2ds I let such things as dimensioning dictate what I will
use for the front view.

Bob

 

OK, now we know what you are trying to do. SolidWorks has a more or less
painless answer to that problem. Assuming you didn't bother to build
your model wrt the global coordinate system in a convenient way you can
add a coordinate system prior to export and then use that coordinate
system during export to orient your model in whatever neutral way you
desire.

TOP