topic Re: Bug found: Midplane between Two Planes selection in Inventor Forum

Bug found: Midplane between Two Planes selection

vanessa.bird — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 19:15:23 GMT

Do you know if there is a way to use Midplane between Two Planes to create a midplane in an assembly between two of the same parts?

Let's say we want a midplane to fall in the center of an assembly where the two outside planes of the assembly fall on two of the same parts. Once the outside surface of the first part is selected, selecting the outside surface of the second (identical) part is not allowed. I tried to apply the midplane within part mode rather than within assembly mode, and midplane is not in desired location as assembly is not represented in part mode.

Work arounds found:

First create plane on second part surface using Offset from Plane. Then use Midplane between Two Planes to select part surface and created plane to create midplane.
Measure midplane distance from one of the part surfaces and create midplane using Offset from Plane.

Re: Bug found: Midplane between Two Planes selection

kacper.suchomski — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 19:42:46 GMT

Yes, this is a known limitation. It's probably about not duplicating construction elements. But good on you for dealing with it. 👏

Re: Bug found: Midplane between Two Planes selection

johnsonshiue — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 21:23:13 GMT

Hi! Inventor assembly workplane acts like a component. It is constrained to other component geometry. The mid plane is done by using the Symmetric constraint, which requires at least two components to participate.

The limitation is also due to lack of SWX-like Width Mate.

Many thanks!

Re: Bug found: Midplane between Two Planes selection

nathan_m_gardner — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 15:12:25 GMT

As a new Inventor user, I find this to be a ridiculous bug.

Re: Bug found: Midplane between Two Planes selection

Curtis_W — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 15:34:45 GMT

Hi @nathan_m_gardner ,

Welcome to the forum. It's been a lot of years but I came to Inventor from Solidworks and initially I found this odd as well.

In any case, it's not a bug, as a bug is something that is not working as designed. In this case it is working as designed, this is just a limitation based on the way it is designed to work.

vanessa.bird provided some suggestions and Johnson has given a little insight into why/how it works the way it does. But let us know if we can further assist with this.

Hope this helps,

Curtis

Re: Bug found: Midplane between Two Planes selection

nathan_m_gardner — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 18:28:18 GMT

In Solid Edge, you are able to select only two surfaces regardless of the part from which the surfaces are, as the right and left contain points. I like the SE approach much better.

Re: Bug found: Midplane between Two Planes selection

James_Willo — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 06:19:52 GMT

Hi, you could create a sketch, project the outside faces and then add a driven dimension between these. You can then use the value to place your plane.

Re: Bug found: Midplane between Two Planes selection

mirko9KND5 — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 15:48:04 GMT

Why have this function "midplane between two planes" if you can't create the "midplane between two planes"?? Calling it a limitation and not a bug doesn't really help, this function is something you'd like to use quite often, just as the symmetry constrain - 9 out of 10 times does not work the way you'd wan't it to work. Is the intent really that you should have to create extra planes and sketches just to have the function work?? Doesn't sound right. Have never encountered these types of limitations on so basic features with any other CAD software.

Re: Bug found: Midplane between Two Planes selection

johnjanik28 — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:45:00 GMT

Hi Mods,

Just found this limitation too. Is there any way if this has been added as a suggestion?

This forum is incredible helpful but I wish management invested more in getting some suggestions complete.

Not trying to flame or whatever but being an end user that pays for an annual upgrade it would be nice to chip away at the suggested improvements more aggressively. Ty

Re: Bug found: Midplane between Two Planes selection

Yijiang.Cai — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 03:45:48 GMT

@vanessa.bird @johnjanik28 @mirko9KND5 @nathan_m_gardner we receive the similar idea in https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/ability-to-add-mid-plane-between-two-surfaces-belonging-to-the/idi-p/13773851, and please feel free to vote it.

BTW, it has been tracked as [INVGEN-83109], which is being investigated, and will keep you updated. Many thanks!