Creating Reference Planes

You can create permanent and temporary reference planes in different ways. As soon as you create a reference plane, it becomes the active one used by Ref and Plane modes.

NoteIf you set the pivot by Alt+clicking on a point, edge midpoint, polygon midpoint, or object center while Ref or Plane manipulation mode is active, a transient reference plane is automatically created and activated (replacing the previous transient plane).

To create a permanent reference plane

Select an object, or one or more components. If you select multiple components, the reference plane is based on the average reference frame.
Do one of the following:
- Choose Transform Reference Planes Create Reference Plane from the Transform panel. A permanent reference plane is created named ReferencePlane by default, and its property editor opens.
  
  or
- Press Ctrl+dash (Ctrl+-). A permanent reference plane is created named ReferencePlane by default, but its property editor does not open.

To create a transient reference plane based on the current selection

Select an object, or one or more components. If you select multiple components, the reference plane is based on the average reference frame.
Do one of the following:
- Choose Transform Reference Planes Create Transient Plane from the Transform panel.
  
  or
- Press the dash key (-).
A transient reference plane is created based on the selected element. The previous transient plane is "forgotten."

To pick a new transient reference plane using the current selection filter

Do one of the following:
- Left-click on the Ref button.
  
  or
- Right-click on Ref or Plane and choose Pick New Reference.
Pick an object or component using the current selection filter on the Select panel. A transient reference frame is created based on the element you picked.

To pick a new transient reference plane using a specific selection filter

Right-click on Ref or Plane, then choose one of the following:
- Pick Object Reference lets you pick an object with the Rectangle selection tool.
- Pick Point Reference lets you pick one or more points with the Rectangle selection tool.
- Pick Edge Reference lets you pick one or more edges with the Raycast selection tool.
- Pick Polygon Reference lets you pick one or more polygons with the Raycast selection tool.
Pick an element. If you are picking a component type, you can first pick an object (if it is not already selected), then pick components on that object. A transient reference frame is created based on the element you picked.

Deleting Permanent Reference Planes

You can remove permanent reference planes from your scene if you are certain that you no longer need to use them to manipulate elements. You cannot delete default or transient reference planes.

To delete permanent reference planes

Select a permanent reference plane under the Application > Data node in an explorer.
Press Delete.