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Change triad orientation.

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phudge

Mechanical
May 29, 2009
27
GB
Hey guys, just wondering if you can help me out with what seems like it should be a simple problem, basically i would like to reorder the axis on my triad, at the moment i have y is up z is depth and x is across, im using camworks and it would be alot more helpful if z was up y was depth and x was across. does anybody know how to chage this?

Cheers
 
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There is no way to do that. Not sure if you can change in the SolidWorks codes for that. May be you can try creating a new co-ordinate system and use that.

Deepak Gupta
SW2009 SP3.0
SW2007 SP5.0
MathCAD 14.0
 
Deepak is correct. You can also make a roundtrip trough one of the formats (like Parasolid, STEP) and assign this reference coordinate system while exporting.

Next import the model again and the coordinate system will be changed.

Artem Taturevich, CSWP
Software and Design Engineer
AMCBridge LLC
 
Does CamWorks not have the ability to re-orient the SW part?

What happens if the part needs machining on multiple faces? Will you need to create a re-oriented model for each face?
 
From the Ayn Rand school of geometry:
X=X
Y=Y
Z=Z

Names of views and planes are subjective. If you don't like the names, change them and save a template.
 
Think of the triad as a physical work space; you don't move the room around to suit the part, you move the part to suit the room.

"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - [small]Robert Hunter[/small]
 
You can use the Move/Copy Bodies command to re-orient the part around the triad.

Joe
SW Office 2008 SP5.0
P4 3.0Ghz 3GB
ATI FireGL X1
 
You can orient your Part to Front View XY default.

Hit Space bar to get Default Views dialog. Select Top as orientation name you want for current XY view and select the update standard views icon. This will make the current XY oriented view Top and update the other 5 orthogonal views and isometric to the correct orientation.

If any drawings have been created this will screw up orientations so you should do a save as copy and open the new part before using update standard views.

If you create your own parts you can create a new part set the orientations the way you want and save as use type Part Template and call it SW_Part_zUP.prtdot

Use that as your default part to create new models from but remember to rename the Planes so XY is Top YZ is right and XZ is Front this will allow you to create the drawings with correct orientation views and not need to do save copy to create a duplicate part with the same info in a different orientation.

Michael

[jester]
 
What phudge is asking may not be possible without screwing up existing drawings, but Solidworks' axis orientation is not a standard orientation and is not what was taught in college 10 years ago (I complained about this maybe 6-7 years ago and was basically told this is not AutoCAD).

See these two pics to see what I am talking about:
Solidworks orientation
CATIA orientation

If you rename the planes, your isometric views will not be correct, and if you do as mjcole stated, well you'll have to redo your drawings.

That said, some CAM systems can correct this when you import a model.



Flores
 
The XYZ orientation is incorrect when considering the global XYZ standard, but I believe the majority of 3D CAD programs are the same as SW.

With machining centres, the Z axis is usually the spindle axis.
 
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