Planes

Will someone please lead me to some tutorials on the creation and use
of Planes. I know that there are several ways to create them,
including along a curved sketched line.
I know that this subject must be quite rudimentary for this Forum, for
which I apologize, however it is an important subject, I feel, and at
the very root of solid geometry and knowing as much about the subject
as possible is a must. For some reason, it was not covered very well
at all in the little Solidworks instruction that I have had. I am
using 2005-2006 Student version of Solidworks.
I am really in need of this information, and any help at all would be
appreciated.
Thanking you,
Amy

 

Not that hard a subject to help out on. Try help, Planes.

There are explicitly defined planes and implicit planes on flat faces.
Planes can be defined using all the usual geometry, point and line,
parallel to existing, through three points, line and point, tangent to
a surface at a point, etc. Planes are considered reference geometry as
are axes, points and coordinate systems. They can be accessed using
Insert Reference Geometry. If you open this property manager most of
the functionality and options should be self evidents.

Once a plane is created you can sketch on it by selecting it and RMB
to get insert sketch.

Planes can be used for sketching on, for mating too, for splitting
bodies and for other uses.

 

Amy,

Knowing how to create planes isn't as important as knowing when. I've seen
many cases of "plane excess" in models. Particularily from folks with a
Pro-E background.

For mechanical parts, you almost never have need for anything other than the
3 default planes. For swoopy stuff, the most common (for me anyway) is
"normal to curve at end point" and "through line/axis at angle".

There's probably twenty different ways to do any given thing in Solidworks,
and seventeen of them could the right way. It all depends.


Mark