topic Re: construction plane from current view? in Fusion Support Forum

construction plane from current view?

graynak — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 14:56:44 GMT

is there a way to generate a construction plane based on the current view within the viewport?

a simple example is that we scan tubular vehicle chassis for retrofitting parts

i can manipulate the view to a position that 'feels' orthogonal to the tube-section at a particular area ...

i then want to create a sketch at that one exact view for brackets or collars

i know i can name that particular view ... but i can't then go in and create a plane from it

i think i can do some of that manipulation in mesh-mode with points on three-planes ... but that requires not capturing history ... which destroys all previous work.

thanks!

Betreff: construction plane from current view?

g-andresen — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 15:25:51 GMT

Hi,

Please share an appropriate file with a hint where the layer should be located.

File > export > save as f3d on local drive > attach it to the next post.

günther

Re: construction plane from current view?

jeff_strater — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 19:04:13 GMT

"is there a way to generate a construction plane based on the current view within the viewport?"

No, there is no way to do that. There should not be any view-dependent operations in a parametric design. Viewing operations are considered to be graphics-only operations, and do not affect the creation of geometry or features

Re: construction plane from current view?

graynak — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 20:00:56 GMT

Thanks Jeff S.

I appreciate that rigor in full parametric design.

I am often straddling the parametric universe and the cold hard steel of less-than-perfect real-life fabrication.

It would be nice to cheat every now and then with the feature described above.

I remember having it in Rhino when I was using that a hundred years ago.

Anyway .. my current method starts at the very beginning with a raw mesh and actually setting real orthogonal planes in the mesh.

The issue is that going back into that raw mesh ... and making adjustments using 'a plane from three points' requires destroying the files history.

thanks anyway ...

i'll continue to use the intersecting-planes-to-create-an-axis method

geoff

Re: construction plane from current view?

g-andresen — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 20:22:04 GMT

Hi,

I would just like to note that possible solutions will not be given as long as an exemplary sample file for analysis is missing.

günther

Re: construction plane from current view?

graynak — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 21:16:13 GMT

Thanks Gunther

Unfortunately ... the files are 100+ MB ... since the meshes are big ...
but here are a few screen grabs to give the idea:

as i zoom into a cross section of the lower chassis tube of this scan ...

i can position my view in a way that i can 'guess' at what would be the most orthogonal view to the tube

then ... if i could put a plane on that view ... i could then make a three-point circle and reverse-engineer the chassis tubing

thanks

Re: construction plane from current view?

pavel_viktorin — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 09:39:59 GMT

Hi, I've written a script that, after selecting a point on the model, creates a construction plane at that point, oriented according to the viewport.

Here's how it works:

You must be in the design environment
Run the script
Select the point
Construction plane is created

import adsk.core, adsk.fusion, traceback def run(context): app = adsk.core.Application.get() ui = app.userInterface design = adsk.fusion.Design.cast(app.activeProduct) view = app.activeViewport def center_view_on_point(point): cam = view.camera offset = adsk.core.Vector3D.create( point.x - cam.target.x, point.y - cam.target.y, point.z - cam.target.z ) new_eye = cam.eye.copy() new_eye.translateBy(offset) new_target = cam.target.copy() new_target.translateBy(offset) cam.eye = new_eye cam.target = new_target cam.isFitView = False view.camera = cam view.refresh() def create_plane(): rootComp = design.rootComponent camera = app.activeViewport.camera cam_eye = camera.eye sketches = rootComp.sketches sketch3D = sketches.add(rootComp.xYConstructionPlane) sketchLines = sketch3D.sketchCurves.sketchLines vector = adsk.core.Vector3D.create( cam_eye.x - point_of_interest.x, cam_eye.y - point_of_interest.y, cam_eye.z - point_of_interest.z ) vector.normalize() # construction plane scale scale_factor = 10.0 vector.scaleBy(scale_factor) transformed_point = adsk.core.Point3D.create( point_of_interest.x + vector.x, point_of_interest.y + vector.y, point_of_interest.z + vector.z ) line = sketchLines.addByTwoPoints(transformed_point, point_of_interest) planes = rootComp.constructionPlanes planeInput = planes.createInput() distance = adsk.core.ValueInput.createByReal(1) planeInput.setByDistanceOnPath(line, distance) construction_plane = planes.add(planeInput) construction_plane.name = "Plane from view" sketch3D.name = "plane sketch" sketch3D.isVisible = False if not design: ui.messageBox('You need to be in the design workspace') return ui.messageBox('Select a point on the model.') selection = ui.selectEntity('Select a point on the model.', 'Vertices,ConstructionPoints') if not selection: ui.messageBox('No point was selected.') return selected_point = selection.entity.geometry point_of_interest = adsk.core.Point3D.create(selected_point.x, selected_point.y, selected_point.z) center_view_on_point(point_of_interest) create_plane()

Re: construction plane from current view?

elrico_cattaneo — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 04:06:32 GMT

You beautiful person, I can not believe you have come back in here 3 years later to solve this. This works brilliantly thank you so, so much.

Re: construction plane from current view?

HughesTooling — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 10:13:00 GMT

@graynak wrote:

i think i can do some of that manipulation in mesh-mode with points on three-planes ... but that requires not capturing history ... which destroys all previous work.

thanks!

Just in case it's helpful to someone you can create a three point plane in direct edit mode without losing history.

Re: construction plane from current view?

Mr_8hz — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 19:36:24 GMT

Hi
How to add that script text?

Thanks!