I have a model with sloping elements and am using a CPlane set to the slope. I have Boxedit set to use current CPlane. I have Universal Construction Planes set, so my viewports all show the same CPlane orientation with Z up:
If I select/view the sheet material in the Perspective viewport, the BoxEdit z height is 18mm and the z position is 0mm.
If I select/view the sheet material in the Right viewport the z height is shown as 5506mm, the z position as -18mm, and the gumball orientation and scale handles no longer reflect the object dimensions:
To me, the point of Universal Construction Planes is that they should provide a consistent platform for working with sloping elements or assemblies. One should be able to select an object in one window, view it in others and tweak values in Boxedit without the figure to be adjusted dancing between ordinates.
Note that the gumball misorientation occurs when the gumball is set to Align to Object and not when it is set to Align to CPlane.
Edit:@davidcockey has politely pointed out below that I have “misremembered” (my word, not his) what Universal CPlanes do and, as a consequence expected Boxedit and CPlanes to interact differently from the way they were designed. So ignore the stuff above about BoxEdit (but not the Boxedit and CPlane improvements mentioned below!) and consider only the misaligned gumball issue. Especially if you can demonstrate I’ve got that wrong too…
I’m not sure what you mean here, but the with Universal CPlanes the CPlane orientation and the CPlane Z up direction is not the same in each viewport. Instead when the CPlane in one of the standard views Top, Front, Right, Perspective is changed, the Cplanes in the other standard views also change so that the Top, Right and Front CPlanes retain their three view orthogonal relationship. The positive z direction in each viewport is relative to the CPlane in that viewport.
You are using BoxEdit with “Use current CPlane” selected. That results in the box aligned with the current Cplane and the x, y and z dimensions shown are in the current viewport CPlane coordinate systemwhich will be different between Top/Perspective, Front and Right viewports.
The alternative “Use world CPlane” results in the box being aligned with world coordinate systems and the x, y and z dimensions shown are in the world coordinate system and independent of the viewport CPlanes.
It sounds like you want a third option which allows the box to be aligned with a single viewport CPlane: for example “Use top viewport CPlane”.
Thanks for chipping in. Yes, you are right, I had forgotten what Universal CPlanes actually did and thought of it in terms of what I expected it to do (strongly influenced by the misleading CPlane axes in each viewport, which in reality relate to the selected CPlane in the Named CPlane panel and not to the CPlanes actually in use - which latter to the forgetful like me would be a much more helpful indicator most of the time.
As would an indication of the CPlane in use in each viewport, possibly after the viewport name.
Yes please - I guess it would be “Use named CPlane” followed by a widget to pick the CPlane. Being able to dance around the viewports without the numbers constantly shifting would make fine tuning much easier.
