difficulty understanding reference planes

[PreetishAmballi]

i have gone through books but could not under stand what is reference plane in sketcher menu..can someone give me a better understanding of what is a reference plane....thanks in advance...

[rohit_rajan · Accepted solution]

the reference plane decides the orientation of the sketching plane.

the reference plane can be datum plane or flat surface.

Creo(Pro/E) selects them automatically but you can select your own reference plane to orient the sketch the way you want..

Many time when the sketching plane is selected and when you enter the sketcher environment, the skecthing orientation is not the way you had desired, this happen because Creo (Pro/E) selects an automatic plane for orientation..but this you can change and re-orient so that sketching plane orients the way you like.

[PreetishAmballi]

i did not undertand sir....can u elaborate with suitable pictures or links

[StephenW]

In your example picture, the 'RIGHT' plane is the reference or orientation plane and it is set to 'BOTTOM' so that orients the sketcher so that the brown side of the plane it on the bottom. If you set the 'RIGHT' plane as the reference and set it 'TOP', the brown side of the plane will be on the top.

[TomD.inPDX]

In the context of defining a sketch, a reference plane simply orients lte sketch.

You have provided a "face plane" with the 1st selection. Now it has to decide what rotational orientation you wish. So the 2nd selection is a plane which wil decide the vertical or horizontal orientation -and- the side the positive normal of the plane will face; up/down or left/right.

Please think of this as constraining the degrees of freedom to none.