Construction planes 
Construction planes are key elements of a parametric project. By default, the RhinoParametric plugin creates 3 construction planes corresponding to the 3 principal Rhino plane views. By default, these 3 planes can not be deleted or modified.
The construction planes are represented by a square with a thick light-grey border in Rhino views.
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Only points of type "Point XYZ" can be the included in a construction plane.
The construction plane must be active.
To do this, you must open the contextual menu of the CPlane's node and choose "Set Active CPlane " or make a double click on this node.
It appears on a grey background in the treeview.
An unique construction plane can be active in a project.
Activating a new construction plane, deactivates the old active construction plane
To deactivate a construction plane, choose "Unset Active CPlane" in its contextal menu or make a double click on its node.
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When you activate a CPlane, the plug-in modifies the construction plane of Rhino views. It allows you to draw directly into Rhino views by being in this plane.
If we wish to modify the construction plane used by Rhino views without setting an active RhinoParametrics construction plane, you must choose "Set view construction plane" in the contextual menu.
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The user can create new construction planes in RhinoParametrics or Rhino command modes alike. The planes will always belong to one of four categories : "Top", "Face", "Right" or "Perspective" depending on the orientation of the plane's normal.
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In RhinoParametrics command mode, the construction plane can be created as follows:
- From 3 points, it is then a "Perspective" type plane.
- From a point and a vector.
- From a point and an orientation deduced from a parametric line object.
- Using the planar surface of another parametric object (see left).
- By analogy with one of the 4 default planes (views).
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The objects collected under a construction plane move with the plane. If the construction plane is itself built with reference to other parametric objects, modifying the object will of course update the construction plane and the collected objects.
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In the example to the left, a construction plane is built by referencing one of the box' faces. This construction plane is activated, and some objects are created (truncated cone and straight pipe), the active construction plane being the intrinsic reference. If the reference index is changed (e.g. the index of the box' face), the plane and solids are updated as well. |
If the box' width is changed by editing its parameters, the downstream solids and the plane move accordingly. Construction planes can also be created using Rhino command mode. However, the plane will be defined by a point and a vector (which becomes its normal), making it difficult for RhinoParametrics to interpret. It is therefore recommended to use RhinoParametrics to define planes.
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A point create in a CPlane can be moved in the treeview.
A point in the treeview can be moved in a CPlane node only if its coordinates are included in this CPlane.
If you modify the point' coordinates and if these new coordinates aren't included in this CPlane, th.e plug-in changes its owner and prevent you from this modification |
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