When I’m creating a part, I often model in accordance with the front, top, right, etc. views as labeled on the View Cube. I think it’s good practice to model (and assemble) keeping in mind how you would hold and look at the part in real life. This promotes consistency as far as the orientation of parts and assemblies, and makes assembling much easier. However… if I ever have to start with anything other than the XY plane to create my geometry, it’s a pain trying keep those orientation conventions, because for whatever reason Inventor is not configured to facilitate that process. Here's what I mean… Here’s the view after creating a new sketch on the XY plane: Everything looks good! Up is up, right is right, etc. Let’s continue… New sketch on the YZ plane: What? I’m looking at the right side of my part but up is to the right and the front is up? That makes no sense… but oh, the axes are aligned in the positive sense, same as for the XY plane. That must be the intent. Makes sense I guess. But wait, there’s more… New sketch on the XZ plane: What?!? Now I’m completely confused. Right is left and left is right, front is back and back is front… but on top of that, the axes are in a random configuration, rotated -90 degrees from what would make them both positive! So it appears that the current default orientation for sketch axes truly is random and nonsensical. If we're going to have a view cube with "front, top, right, etc." labeled, then the part creation process should facilitate those orientations. As is often the case, this should at least be an option. I should be able to go into Sketch options and specify the following option: Orientation of in-plane sketch axes (for sketches on planes AND part faces): Orient in accordance with View Cube Orient in accordance with positive axis directions If the first option is selected, sketches will always try and keep the top UP, and right to the RIGHT. Everything else works out if those are true. Yes, there are ways to work around this annoying behavior. I can re-define the sketch coordinate system, but then if I try to redefine the sketch later it leads to some serious issues. I can just rotate my view how I want it after I create a sketch, but then the vertical and horizontal constraints are mixed up. But ultimately, none of the shortcomings of those workarounds even matter, because ultimately this shouldn't be an issue in the first place. We should have the option for the part creation process to facilitate the “top, right, front, etc.” orientations specified by the View Cube. I know that’s how I work, and I’m sure many other users do, too.
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