Use workplane space for ortographic cameras when workplane is active

Currently when workplane is active, ortographic views (top, bottom, left, right, front, back) still align with the world space instead of the workplane space. Would it be possible to improve this in one of the future releases?

Thanks.

Also, there doesn't seem to be any way to snap to workplane's points or lines. NVil detects them, but does not snap.

I think I should have posted this in the bugs section after all.

Also, there doesn't seem to be any way to snap to workplane's points or lines. NVil detects them, but does not snap.

I think I should have posted this in the bugs section after all.

Are you sure? If you have the workplane visible, snapping enabled and grid-point/grid-line snapping is on, you should be able to do it.

Hey IStonia. I'm positive, unless there's something I have not turned on for workplane to be active. But new objects are created in the workplane's space, so I think it's on.

Right now, NVil shows the snapping cross when I'm near the workplane's point or line, but it doesn't snap.

I have just checked it and it works fine. I used grid-point snap to create a box. Can you show me in a video?

Okay, here's the thing. I just fired up my workstation to record the video, but the snapping does work there just fine. It doesn't on my laptop though - a dated HP Pavillion dv9500. Could this be a hardware specific problem? Or maybe it has something to do with .NET framework version I have installed (3.5 SP1)?

P.S. On my laptop I can only snap to workplane's origin.

Anyway, I'll try to record a video tomorrow.

Okay, I think I found what's it all about.
Here's how to reproduce it:
1. Edit->Preferences: set Unit Setup to 0.01 as one millimetre
2. Edit->Preferences->Grid: set Workplane Grid interval to 25 meters.
3. Create an object, move it off origin, rotate it a bit and create a workplane (align to selection).
4. Enable snapping to grid points or lines and try to snap the object.

But, set the workplane grid interval to 100 mm and it works.

Also, try snapping to grid point when workplane grid interval is set to 2m 500mm. You can only snap to the origin and to the first points around the origin (sometimes to the second as well, depends from which side). Generally speaking, the farther from the workplane origin, the less likely the snapping will occur.

Very weird.

Hi rubberDuck,

For the snapping, it sounds like a problem with "Scene scale".

Select:- "View-> "Scene scale". Change the "Scene Scale" to 100. Set the Workplane "Grid" interval to 25m and it should work OK.

rubberDuck, what is the scene scale your are using?

Okay.
Right now I'm using units setup of 0.1 as millimetre (so one unit is one centimetre) and scene scale of 1. Grid intervals I have set to 10cm for floor and workplanes and 1cm for view grid. The snapping is okay unless I bump the intervals to 10 meters and up. So as long as I'm not told to model a sky scrapper or a Nimitz-class carrier, it's okay.

I tried increasing the scene scale and it seems to help, thank you. But how does it work? It doesn't scale models already present in the scene from what I've seen - they all remain of the same size.

A scene scale is a definition of the size of the working space. In the real world you only need a little shed to repair your shovel, but you need a huge workshop for an aircraft. Scene scale is generic unit basis. If the scene scale is 1, a box of 1x1x1 should be not too big not too small in the scene. For scene scale of 100, the box size is 100x100x100.

There are some app internal values are scene scale sensitive. For example, soft selection range, subobject snapping tollerance in cut operations, object creation range(that's the problem you mentioned in this thread), etc.

You can set up scene scale with the help of some existing reference objects. Choose 'View > Reset View', the viewport camera's location will be set to a position where the camera's distance to world origin is defined by the scene scale value. If the the reference objects are too big or too small, you can adjust the scene scale 'View > Scene Scale' and do 'View > Reset View' again to recheck until you are happy with it.
There is also a quicker way. Once you have your reference objects in the scene, turn on 'View > Auto Scene Scale Enabled'. The app will adjust the scene scale automatically base on the objects in the scene once you turn it on. Then turn it off. Now do 'View > Reset View' and you will see the auto set scene scale should be quite right or not far from it, unless you reference objects are extremely too small or too big for the available scene scales and in this case you need to scale your objects.

Once the scene scale is set up, you can set up your grid setting. Make sure the floor plane and the workplane are not overly big or small.

Hi IStonia,

Scene scale is generic unit basis.
If the scene scale is 1, a box of 1x1x1 should be not too big not too small in the scene. For scene scale of 100, the box size is 100x100x100.

Then your "Auto Scene scale" is broken.
The default Box of 1x1x1 will (if "Auto Scene Scale" is enabled) force the Scene Scale to 0.1. Only when a Box reaches 2.5 will the "Auto Scene scale" change to 1
A Box of 100x100x100 will give a "Auto Scene Scale" of 10. Only when the Box reaches 250x250x250 will "Auto scale scale" change to 100.

I don't think it is broken. The auto scene scale is a result of the computation of the bounding box of all the scene objects. The result is approximate and you can fine tune from there.

I don't think it is broken. The auto scene scale is a result of the computation of the bounding box of all the scene objects.

But the "Auto scene scale" output conflicts with what you have stated.
 

The result is approximate and you can fine tune from there.

Fine tune what?