Construction plane through circular edge?

[Anonymous]

I'd like to create a coil around an existing cylindrical shape as demonstrated in this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR7fsgQNmEk. However, unlike the example in this video my cylinder is hollow (tubular) and so I do not have a flat face to select as the profile for the coil. I assume the right way to do it in this would be to place a construction plane through the middle of my cylinder so I can select the construction plane as the profile for my coil. The difficulty I'm having is that because my tube is at an arbitrary angle and not aligned to any flat faces or origin planes I have nothing to create an "offset plane" from. What I want is some way to create a construction plane that is aligned to the circular edge highlighted in my screenshot. How does one do this in Fusion 360?

[Anonymous]

As a variant, see screen cast below. Maybe there is a simpler method, I don't know...

[Anonymous]

Thanks grandag. That does indeed do what I need. I'll be interested to see if there is a simpler solution though as your method leaves 2 unnecessary sketches. If not, what you have proposed will work for me. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Also, you can try to switch into Patch workspace, create Patch using that circular edge, then create Offset Plane or Sketch on that face, and then Remove (not Delete) that face to hide it.

[Noah_Katz]

@Anonymous,

Maybe I don't understand what you're trying to do, but what about Construct/Tangent Plane?

[Anonymous]

If I select my cylindrical face and choose Tangent plane, the resulting plane is not what I need (see below). Both of @Anonymouss solutions give me what I need but I was hoping there was a way that didn't involve creating unnecessary faces or lines just to position a construction plane. Doing this kind of thing complicates the history timeline without telling a design intent story IMHO. If there isn't a better way to do it then grandag's patch/remove workflow works for me. I was just hoping there was a better way I don't know about.

[kate.raskauskas]

Hi @Anonymous,

I'm a little late to the party, but would construction line + construction plane workflow work for you?

[TrippyLighting]

Only one sketch is needed with a couple of caveats.

The trouble with some of these methods is that when you start creating a coil on such a construction plane the origin of that construction plane might not be in the center of the circle!

I did find a method that solves this problem.

The next problem then might be that the normal direction of the construction plane faces in the wrong direction.

Construction planes cannot be flipped and that alone can ruin your day, but the abomination of a coil tool that we have today also does not have a flip button that would allow us to change direction. But I belie I've found a method to wok that out as well.

[HughesTooling]

@TrippyLighting That's interesting what you found about the normal direction of a plane but I don't know why you needed to worry about it for coil.

Coil will work either side of a construction plane or did you see a reason not to have a minus height?

Mark

[HughesTooling]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 If there isn't a better way to do it then grandag's patch/remove workflow works for me. I was just hoping there was a better way I don't know about.

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How did you create the bulb, did you use any sketches and revolves. If you did you could use plane along path and use the revolve\sketch axis as a path for Plane Along Path.

Mark

[smith9]

(For anyone coming to this question later...)

I was trying to do the same thing - I wanted a plane through a circle.

I eventually figured it out by thinking what defines a plane and does fusion 360 have something that does that...

Simplest one which will work for any curved line that is on a single plane (a circle is such a line)

1. Select the circular edge
2. Repeat 3 times: Construct > Point along path > Distance  - each time choose a different distance along the path.
3. That will generate you 3 points on the circle which defines a plane
4. Select the 3 points then Construct > Plane Through Three Points

(You can also generate a point in the centre of the circle by selecting the circular edge and Construct > Point at Centre of Circle, Sphere, Torus)

Below was what I did - a centre point on circle and two point on circle (would have been simpler just doing three points on the circle) - The circle was the edge between a conical shape and a cylinder.

 

[HughesTooling]

Another quite easy way is create a sketch, doesn't matter what plane you use. With the sketch active use Project Include 3d geometry and project the circular edge. Now you have a circular profile you can select it and create an offset plane.

As an example my sketch plane is the rectangle and I used project 3d to create the circle at an angle. Just highlight the closed profile and you can create an offset plane.