create a plane with 3 points on a mesh

[SC_Precision]

I have a pretty large mesh that comes in quite far from the origin and way out of any workable alignment.  I'd like to add a plane to it, in order to help me more efficiently move and orient it to the XY plane.  However in mesh mode, I try to add a plane using 3 points, and the first two "seem" to add fine to the mesh, but when I select a location for the third point, the plane forms off in some wild orientation.

My end goal for the mesh is ONLY to use as a visual guide for creating geometry, I am reverse engineering a part to fit to this mesh.

Any thoughts on this?  Thanks as usual.

[barnhouseg]

I replied to this thread to voice disapproval that the function is broken. None of the prior responses address this. To reiterate, in the mesh work-space "plane on 3 points" should work on a mesh. Having to slap a sculpting surface or other extra steps are not desirable. 

This is a significant problem since  reverse engineering step one is to quickly orient parts by primitive shape extraction (plane, cylinder, cone, etc...).

Plane is always at 45 degrees....

When will this function be corrected?

[cdotrodrigues]

that is a FORM object not a mesh object.