Getting projection of angles in Pro/E

Hello, I need to get the projection of the angle formed between two datum axes in Pro/E, on the datum planes that I select. How should that be done? Under Analysis>Measure> Angle, there are three selections that need to be made and I though that the third entity is the plane you would like to get the projection on, but it seems like that doesn't do it. Any suggestions? Thanks so much! Roza

Go to the Definition tab and click on Direction, pick an axis that describes the normal to the plane. Unfortunately, direction doesn't include any way to indicate a plane normal while it could as easily be either direction in the plane (xy, yz, zx). Obviously, it would do you well to have created this axis before hand, or you could possibly interrupt this function to create one 'on the fly' by simply selecting the 'Create Axis' icon at the time you need to choose the directional reference.

David Janes

Thanks, but if you try it you will see it keeps giving you either the supplementary angle of the one you were getting before defining a reference, or 360 minus that angle . And it also seems like selecting the normal does the same things as picking the plane itself - but this one is not an issue as long as it actually gives you some form of the measurement you want to take. I need to know the projection of that angle on a plane I pick, or in other words the angle between projections of the two lines on that plane. May be there is a way to do this second one although of course if the first method works out it is much more preferable and straightforward.

Roza

the normal to the plane. Unfortunately, direction doesn't include any way to indicate a plane normal while it could as easily be either direction in the plane (xy, yz, zx). Obviously, it would do you well to have created this axis before hand, or you could possibly interrupt this function to create one 'on the fly' by simply selecting the 'Create Axis' icon at the time you need to choose the directional reference.

Thanks, but if you try it you will see it keeps giving you either the supplementary angle of the one you were getting before defining a reference, or 360 minus that angle . And it also seems like selecting the normal does the same things as picking the plane itself - but this one is not an issue as long as it actually gives you some form of the measurement you want to take. I need to know the projection of that angle on a plane I pick, or in other words the angle between projections of the two lines on that plane. May be there is a way to do this second one although of course if the first method works out it is much more preferable and straightforward.

Roza

the normal to the plane. Unfortunately, direction doesn't include any way to indicate a plane normal while it could as easily be either direction in the plane (xy, yz, zx). Obviously, it would do you well to have created this axis before hand, or you could possibly interrupt this function to create one 'on the fly' by simply selecting the 'Create Axis' icon at the time you need to choose the directional reference.

Thanks, but if you try it you will see it keeps giving you either the supplementary angle of the one you were getting before defining a reference, or 360 minus that angle . And it also seems like selecting the normal does the same things as picking the plane itself - but this one is not an issue as long as it actually gives you some form of the measurement you want to take. I need to know the projection of that angle on a plane I pick, or in other words the angle between projections of the two lines on that plane. May be there is a way to do this second one although of course if the first method works out it is much more preferable and straightforward.

Roza

Shot in the dark, sorry it didn't work out for you. Maybe if you created a drawing with the projection plane parallel to the screen and dimension the angle from there?

David Janes

Thanks, but if you try it you will see it keeps giving you either the supplementary angle of the one you were getting before defining a reference, or 360 minus that angle . And it also seems like selecting the normal does the same things as picking the plane itself - but this one is not an issue as long as it actually gives you some form of the measurement you want to take. I need to know the projection of that angle on a plane I pick, or in other words the angle between projections of the two lines on that plane. May be there is a way to do this second one although of course if the first method works out it is much more preferable and straightforward.

Roza

Maybe you could just project the curves onto that plane and measure?

David Janes

That´s the way I helped myself out when I had a similar problem.

Funny thing that when it comes to directions in conjunction with planes it seems some of ptc´s programmers were totally unaware of the concept of a vector _normal_ to the plane which fully describes its orientation.

So some of the "analysis/measure/projection" functionality is confusing.

Walther