Bug found: Midplane between Two Planes selection

[vanessa.bird]

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.

[kacper.suchomski]

Hi

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

[johnsonshiue]

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!

[nathan_m_gardner]

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

[Curtis_W · Accepted solution]

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

[nathan_m_gardner]

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.

[James_Willo]

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. 

[mirko9KND5]

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. 

[johnjanik28]

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 

[Yijiang.Cai]

@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-belongin... 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!