Patterning Planes - a series of offset planes, a series of circular planes.

[TBECKESPRESSO]

Hey Team, 

This is functionality I am used to in SolidWorks and miss.  Can we please add it?

https://www.javelin-tech.com/blog/2012/11/pattern-solidworks-planes/

I used it for lofts and other strange builds.

Tyler

[CGBenner]

@TBECKESPRESSO 

Hello and welcome.  The best place to put these enhancement ideas would be in the Insiders Program.  You can apply to join this with the link in my forum signature below.  Good luck!

[etfrench]

Simply create a plane in a component and pattern the component.

[TBECKESPRESSO]

That is a clever work around.  Doesnt that add a lot of complexity when working on a single design and not an assembly?

[etfrench]

Not really. It's best to put the first plane in a subcomponent so all of the planes' visibility can be turned on of off.

[TrippyLighting · Accepted solution]

You can also simply create a sketch on a plane and then use the surface patch to create a surface. That surface can be patterned and then you can sketch on it.

@CGBenner this should be recorded as an enhancement request in Jira! 

[john85NFT]

The "accepted solution" is still convoluted and cumbersome. Did this request ever get added as a future enhancement? I'd love to be able to simply pattern out a plane without creating extra sketches and surfaces.

[etfrench]

Just use a component. It only requires one sketch containing the path.

[john85NFT]

I appreciate the quick reply. My dissatisfaction with this approach is that patterning a component creates a dense nest sub-items in the tree, making it difficult to work with later. It might be fine for 1 or 2 components, but when you're patterning out 22 planes that all overlap on the screen, it can be unhelpful to use separate components.

In the end I used patches instead of planes, as suggested in a previous comment. But it still seems like a workaround when coming from Solidworks. And I don't see the issue with letting us pattern 'Planes' like everything else. Perhaps the backend coding makes it difficult?

[etfrench]

I think the browser is a little cleaner with components and you can turn visibility of all user planes on or off in the Display Settings dialog.