Planes Panel

Location: 2D page

Trimmed Subpanel

When you select lines to create a surface, the lines must form one complete path, either by touching at the endpoints or by intersecting each other. The tolerance used to determine if the two lines intersect can be modified in the Options panel. Lines translated from other systems often need smoothing to create a useful surface.

Note: The square option does not attempt to smooth any lines.

Option	Action
lines / nodes	Select the nodes or lines that define the surface. Figure 1.
mesh, keep surf /mesh, dele surf / mesh, w/o surf / surface only	mesh, keep surf Create a surface from the selected entities and then generate a mesh on the created surface. The created surface is retained along with the mesh. mesh, dele surf Create a surface from the selected entities and then generate a mesh on the created surface. The created surface is then deleted and only the corresponding mesh is retained. mesh w/o surf Create a mesh between the selected entities using linear interpolation without creating a surface. surface only Create a surface from selected entities, but do not create a mesh. You can use the resulting surface to perform any desired geometry cleanup functions or automeshing.
force to plane / calculate plane	Choose either force to plane or calculate plane. If you choose force to plane, a standard plane and vector selector displays; use it to define the desired plane.
keep line endpoints	Ensure that the end points remain as fixed points on the new planar surface(s).

Square Subpanel

Option	Action
(plane and vector selector)	Select the plane on which you want to create the surface. Note: You must specify a base node in all cases, since you are defining a plane rather than a vector.
mesh, keep surf / mesh, dele surf / mesh, w/o surf / surface only	mesh, keep surf Create a surface from the selected entities and then generate a mesh on the created surface. The created surface is retained along with the mesh. mesh, dele surf Create a surface from the selected entities and then generate a mesh on the created surface. The created surface is then deleted and only the corresponding mesh is retained. mesh w/o surf Create a mesh between the selected entities using linear interpolation without creating a surface. surface only Create a surface from selected entities, but do not create a mesh. You can use the resulting surface to perform any desired geometry cleanup functions or automeshing.
size =	Specify the size of the surface to create. The distance from the center of the planar surface to the midpoint of each of its edges is half the distance specified in size =. Figure 2.

Command Buttons

Button	Action
create	Create the new planar entities (surfaces, mesh elements).
reject	Undo the most recent entity creation operation.
return	Exit the panel.