Project Panel

Use the Project panel to project data entities to a plane, vector, surface, or line.

Location: Tool page

Note: Both the plane to project onto and the direction of projection can be defined using local coordinate systems by using the vector option and selecting a vector from a local coordinate system.

To Plane Subpanel

Use the To Plane subpanel to project nodes, elements, lines and points onto a plane along a user-defined direction.
Option Action
entity selector Used to select entities for projection onto a plane. Valid entity types include nodes, elements, lines, and points.
to plane: Define the plane onto which the entities selected will be projected.
  • Use the N1, N2, N3 option to either define a plane (N1, N2, N3) or define a vector using two nodes (N1 and N2), in which case the plane is normal to the specified vector.
  • Use other vectors (coordinate system axes or vector entities) to define the plane. In such cases the plane is normal to the selected vector.
A base node is required because it defines the location of the plane. If you do not specify one while using the N1, N2, N3 method, N1 is used as the base node.
along vector: Define the direction of projection. All of the selected entities will be projected along the same direction.

If you do not specify a direction, the entities are projected along the normal to the selected plane.

To Vector Subpanel

Use the To Vector subpanel to project nodes, elements, lines and points onto a vector along a user-defined direction.
Option Action
entity selector Select entities for projection onto a vector.
to vector: Define the vector onto which the entities selected will be projected.
  • Use the N1, N2, N3 option to either define a plane (N1, N2, N3) in which case the vector is normal to the specified plane, or define a vector using two nodes (N1 and N2).
  • Use other vectors (coordinate system axes or vector entities) to define the vector to project onto.
A base node is required because it defines the location of the vector. If you do not specify one while using the N1, N2, N3 method, N1 is used as the base node.
along cut plane: Define the direction of projection. All the entities selected will be projected along the same direction.

If you do not specify a direction, the entities are projected along the normal to the vector selected.

To Surface Subpanel

Use the To Surface subpanel to project nodes, elements, lines and points onto a surface along either a user-defined direction or the normal to the surface selected.
Option Action
entity selector Select entities for projection onto a surface.
to surface: Define the surface(s) to project the entities onto.

Select the surface(s) in the modeling window, or click surf (or surfs, if multiple surfaces are selected) and enter the ID(s) of the surface(s) to select.

Multiple surface selection is supported for points, nodes and elements, but lines continue to support only a single surface.
along vector: Choose a method for defining the direction of projection.
surface normal
Use local surface normals for projection to account for any surface curvature.
plane selector
Define a single direction, and project all of the entities along this direction.

To Line Subpanel

Use the To Line subpanel to project nodes or points to a line along a user-defined direction or the normal to the line selected.
Option Action
entity selector Select entities for projection onto a line.
to line: Use the line list/line path selector to select the lines to project the entities to.
line list
Select all of the lines of interest on the model.
line path
Select two surface edges and the lines/edges that are in the closest path between the selected lines.
along vector: Choose a method for defining the direction of projection.
line normal
Use the normal to the line at each point on the line to determine the direction of projection.
plane selector
Use the plane selector to define a single direction. All of the entities are projected along this direction.

Command Buttons

Button Action
project Project the selected entities in accordance with the specified inputs.
reject Undo the most recent projection operation.
return Finalize the transformation and exit the Position panel.