Action Plane Toolbar

The action plane

The action plane provides a mechanism to help place points in 3D space as well as set up a convenient 2D plane to perform 2D functions on. The action plane can be widely manipulated and placed around a scene, floating in space at different angles or fixed to strategic reference points on a surface.

Action plane appearance can be adjusted in PointStudio preferences in the View window General tab.

Some of the functions that operate specifically on the action plane include:

  • 2D line
  • 2D polygon
  • Circle
  • Rectangle
  • Offset line

    Other functions benefit from the placement and adjustment of the action plane.

The action plane toolbar provides many settings and functions relevant to the action plane.

These include:

  • Set action plane position — several options for defining the position of the action plane using points and planes.
  • Move action plane — several options to translate and rotate the action plane.
  • Save and restore action plane — save action plane locations for easily referencing later on.
  • Toggle action plane visibility — hide or show the action plane.
  • Toggle action plane manipulator — hide or show the action plane manipulator. A widget allowing the user to manually translate and rotate the action from any chosen point on the action plane.
  • Choose predefined views — choose between standard orthogonal views around the action plane position.
  • Section view mode (strip) — special mode that allows viewing strips to be defined parallel to the action plane.

 

  Icon Description Shortcut
 

Set action plane position 2 point & 3 point

 

 

Quick Section action plane

 
 

XY Slice

 

 

Save and restore action plane

 
 

Toggle action plane visibility

Shift+A

 

Toggle hide or display action plane manipulator

Shift+C
 

Choose predefined views

 

 

Section view mode (strip)

Toggle /

Setting an action plane

Use these commands to set the position of the action plane using various reference points or planes.

  1. On the View ribbon tab navigate to the Action Plane group. From the Set drop-down list select one of the following action plane options.

Quick Section

Use this tool to quickly create vertical action planes, create a quick section from a plane and move action plane sections.

On the View ribbon tab navigate to the Action Plane group. From the Quick Section drop-down list select one of the following options.

The Quick Section Two Points in Plan is also available from the Position and Filter ribbon tab and navigating to the View group and selecting Quick Section.

XY Slice

Use this tool to quickly slice objects in a horizontal plane. The elevation is from the middle of the views extent and the slice is always 10 cm or  0.25 ft thick.

You can find XY Slice in the Position and Filter ribbon tab and navigating to the View group then selecting XY Slice.

Move action plane

Use these commands to move the action plane to a new position.

On the View ribbon tab navigate to the Action Plane group. From the Set drop-down list select one of the Move to actions followed by a Left Mouse Button click in the view window to set the new position for the action plane.

XY, YZ, ZX refer to view window standard axes.

Orient from view places action plane perpendicular to camera view direction (user's viewpoint).

Save manage and restore action plane

Save any action plane position with a reference name, then restore (recall) later as required.

To access saved planes, to quickly save an action plane or to manage action planes:

On the View ribbon tab navigate to the Action Plane group. From the Saved Planes drop-down list the following options are available.

  • A list of created action planes available for a quick selection.
  • Save Action Plane — allows you to quickly save an action plane.
  • Manager...— Where you can editing the action planes, add, remove, import and export or rename the selected action plane.

Toggle hide or display action plane

On the View ribbon tab navigate to the Action Plane group. Toggle Visibility to hide or display the action plane.

Toggle hide or display action plane manipulator

Hide or display the action plane manipulator.

The action plane manipulator provides a widget that can be used to manually move and rotate the action plane.

On the View ribbon tab navigate to the Action Plane group. Toggle Manipulator.

Initially a white ball appears, that can be dragged around on the action plane to the desired location. Click on the white ball to activate. The translate and rotate widget will appear and allow adjustments. Click on the white ball again to close, or click on the icon again.

Place manipulator on action plane using white ball.

    Use manipulator to manually move and rotate action plane.

Predefined views

Predefined views allow you to view standard orientations with respect to the current placement of the action plane.

Quick select a view from the view window toolbar.

Alternatively.

  1. On the View ribbon tab navigate to the Action Plane group. From the View From drop-down list the following views are available.

    Top view

Section view mode (strip)

Section viewing mode can be used to check registration errors and to compare objects (for example, compare as-built surface against design).

Section view mode provides the ability to view only a section or strip within the view window with respect to the action plane. Options allow designating reference cuts based on the front, back and centre (strip) of the action plane. Advanced options provide more control on the strip sizing and increments.

  1. Select the

  2. The Section Mode is available from the Position and Filter ribbon tab and navigating to the View group. From the Section Mode drop-down list and select a section view.

    Alternatively

    The Section Mode is also available from the View ribbon tab and navigating to the Action Plane group. From the Section Mode drop-down list and select a section view.

  • Back Side — to view a section set out in the Section Manager to represent the back side.
  • Front Side — to view a section set out in the Section Manager to represent the front side.
  • Strip — to view a section set out in the Section Manager that represents a strip between front and the back side.

The Section Manager... allows for more advanced adjustment settings for each of the section modes:

 
  • Select a mode to adjust form: Front Side, Back Side, Strip or None.
  • Adjust the Total width of the action plane, these are dependant on the Mode selection type. For the Strip mode, the Total width will be divided between the Back section and the Front section. These values can be altered and updated in situ. For the Front and Back you can only change the Front and Back respectively.
  • Assign a custom incremental step width or use the Total width value. When the step Backward or step Forward buttons are clicked, the action plane will always shift by that set amount .
  • Dragging an object into the search field limits what is visible in the tree below.
  • Select the object(s) to apply the action plane to.
  • Clear the field.

Viewing a horizontal section through a pit using the XY positioned action plane.