Having tried to get to grips with MPlane, I have to agree with Steve1. The Help file barely scratches the surface and there arenāt any videos available, either in the Help file or online. For example:
Start a new instance of Rhino, standard 4View, wireframe in all views. Draw a box, rotate it randomly a couple of time to get it askew to all of the standard views, so that setting an MPlane becomes useful. Fire up the command.
Iām prompted to select an object. Thatāll be the box in this case. Next up; command line offers me a few options. āAttachā looks like a good one to start with. I read the Help file and it all looks good. The cursor sprouts three coloured axes. Attach to a corner of the box, then click relevant edges of box to align the axes. Command line asks if I want to update automatically (I canāt think why you wouldnāt want to with an MPlane, so itās a Yes from me). I should be good to go now.
The command however keeps running and loops back to the first line of options. Hit escape to kill it. Iām left with a box with a blue Z axis sprouting from one corner - neither the X or Y axis is visible on the edges of the box (is there a display setting to fix this?), but Iāll believe that theyāre present for now. Flit to an ortho view and call SetCplane, Top. Sketch away on face of box and all looks to be in order - much better than struggling with World Cplanes. Name the MPlane so that I can keep track of it. OK. Next up, move the box and revel in the fact that the MPlane will go with it.
Exceptā¦ it doesnāt.
The Plane origin gets left behind, three axes in view with their little arrow heads defiantly holding their original positions. Go back, check the Help file. Automatic = Yes āAutomatically updates the construction plane when the object position changesā. Now Iām at a dead end. No further instruction, no videos. I try restoring the CPlane through Named CPlanes panel but that does nothing.
Can MPlanes be made to work as I thought they should (i.e. staying attached to their parent object)? In the Named CPlanes panel, how do you ascertain which are MPlanes and which are ānormalā? Can they be treated in the same way? What happens if I copy an object thatās got an MPlane attached (if indeed it is attached) - does the construction plane get duplicated with it? How do I find the Plane I want if Iāve created say 50 planes in a model and canāt remember the name of the one I want? Is there a way to highlight the planes on-the-fly by scrolling through the Named CPlanes panel? What happens if I change the topology of the object that I originally attached the MPlane to - does it get binned, or is it remapped and if so, how? Do I get a warning to tell me that the object Iāve just cut ānā shut had an MPlane attached and now Iāve busted it? The list could go on and on.
I guess what Iām getting at is that this may well be a very powerful function, but without some clear instruction and overview of the methodology, itās not much use to anyone but the initiated.
