Creating Planes

In this tutorial we’ll introduce you to a variety of plane creation functions in Mastercam 2017 to help you get started with designing geometry.

There are five ways of creating planes:

• Dynamic Plane

• Plane From Solid Face

• Plane From Line Normal

• Plane From Geometry

• Plane From Gview

VIEW > Ensure Planes is enabled in the Managers group

Dynamic Plane

In the Planes Manager, select the Create a new plane icon.

Dynamic Plane

Place gnomon at desired origin for the plane (AutoCursor is useful here).

Rotate, drag, and/or move axes as needed.

Once positioned correctly, enter a plane Name and select OK.

Plane From Geometry

In the Planes Manager, select the Create a new plane icon.

From geometry

Select geometry that indicates the direction required for the Y axis and X axis.

Name plane and select OK.

Plane From Solid Face

In the Planes Manager, select the Create a new plane icon.

From solid face

Select face.
Note: the Z axis will be normal to the face and the gnomon will be centered on face.

Name plane and select OK.

Plane From Gview

Rotate your part using the middle mouse button to a desired view other than the seven existing plane views listed in the Planes Manager.
In the Planes Manager, select the Create a new plane icon.

From Gview

Note: the gnomon will be placed in a fixed WCS orientation on the existing origin with the Z axis always pointing towards you (Top view relative to the new WCS).

Name plane and select OK.

Plane From Line Normal

In the Planes Manager, select the Create a new plane icon.

From line normal

Select the normal line.
Note: the Z axis will lie on the selected line pointing in either direction and the gnomon will be placed on the nearest corner.

Name plane and select OK.