Hey all
I sit and try to understand a 3D coordinate system in SolidWorks X = right Y =up Z = off the screen.
I think it would be more correct if Z = up, it seems difficult to explain why I would, therefore, I hope that one can explain to me why just a 3D coordinate system is as it is.
From Martin Wendler
Depends what you are used to. X=3Dright and Y=3Dup makes sense in the 2D world. Perhaps it's an AutoCrayon holdover. You can always redefine your default views to match your little heart's desire. Like an Appalachian wedding, it's all relative.
You could take a page from Ayn Rand and disregard up, down, left, right, etc. all together. "A is A,", Ayn did say. Thus, X is X, Y is Y, and Z is Z. No relativist terminology can change that.
A 3D coordinate system refers to the real world not your computer display. normlly x refers left to right y front to rear z bottom to top.
Bob
search "right hand rule"
that would be a 3rd angle 3d co-ordinat system.
Bob
Z is up if and only if you are sketching on the TOP plane or a plane parallel to the TOP plane.
In mechanical engineering drawings the FRONT view customarily is the view with the most information in it and with a few exceptions is the way you would view the part if it was sitting on the desk in front of you hence Y is up.
IIRC In the FRONT plane y = Y, x = X, z = Z In the RIGHT plane y = Y, x = -Z, z = X In the TOP plane y = -Z, x = X, z = Y
where lower case is the sketch plane coordinate system and uppercase is the GLOBAL coordinate system.
These conventions only hold true for the three predefined planes. All other planes are subject to normal flipping which means that the sign can change without warning if you are not careful.
TOP
as someone already said, x = x y = y z = z
so it dosen't really matter, it's all relative. you can turn it any way you want.
Don't think it doesn't matter just because SW insulates you from having to think about coordinate systems.
TOP
You're missing a golden opportunity to teach yourself how to reorient default views. You can make "Front", "Right", "Top" be whatever you want in SolidWorks.
You can choose to remain helpless and simply cry about how you don't like SW's default orientation, or you can change it to your liking.
Exactly, hence the reason for those wonderful things called templates ;)
TOP
I like to consider the default orientation of whatever modeling program I am using. It is less messy when moving objects from one software to another. When doing the 2ds I let such things as dimensioning dictate what I will use for the front view.
Bob
OK, now we know what you are trying to do. SolidWorks has a more or less painless answer to that problem. Assuming you didn't bother to build your model wrt the global coordinate system in a convenient way you can add a coordinate system prior to export and then use that coordinate system during export to orient your model in whatever neutral way you desire.
TOP
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