Create Coordinate Systems and Align Parts

Create Coordinate Systems

Note: The rotation angles entered via the Systems tool are referred to as "Global" rotation angles. Mathematically, these are also referred to as Euler angles. These angles should not be confused with the any type of relative angular rotation that you perform using the Move tool. When performing the rotations using the Move tool, the changes are incremental changes. This means that once you rotate about a given axis, the previous orientation of the axis is lost. So, any further rotations are with respect to the new set of axes. With the global rotation angles used in the Systems context, all rotations are always performed with respect to the original orientation of the global coordinate system.

From the Setup ribbon, click the Systems tool.

Figure 1.
Select a point in the modeling window.
Position the coordinate system in the following ways:
- In the Property Editor, define the x,y,z coordinates of the system and the global rotation angles.
  Figure 2.
- Enter values for the coordinate system origin and global rotation angles in the microdialog.
  Figure 3.
  Tip:
  - Click to align the system with the global axis.
  - Click to change the coordinates interactively using the Move tool.
    Note: When entering values in the Move tool microdialog, the angular inputs do not correspond to Euler angles.
  - Click to position the system at the center of the bounding box projected onto the floor.
    Note: The order of precedence for choosing the bounding box is:
    
    Identified wheels
    
    The model
    
    The wind tunnel
    
    The order of precedence for choosing the floor is:
    
    The minimum Z value of the bounding box of the wind tunnel
    
    The minimum Z value of the chosen bounding box
    
    The Z value of the center of the chosen bounding box is projected onto the chosen floor by an order of precedence of:
    
    The tunnel Z-axis
    
    The chosen bounding box Z-axis
- From the Systems tool group, click the List Systems tool. In the Systems dialog, edit the coordinate system origin and global rotation angles.
  Figure 4.
  
  Figure 5.
  
  Tip: Use the and icons to search and filter coordinate systems.

Import and Export Coordinate Systems

From the Setup ribbon, Systems tool group, click the List Systems tool.

Figure 6.

The Systems dialog opens.
From the Systems tab:
- Click to export the coordinate system database.
- Click to import a coordinate system database.

Associate Parts with Coordinate Systems

Align parts in the following ways:

Option	Description
With the Align Tool	From the Setup ribbon, Systems tool group, click the Align tool. Figure 7. A guide bar appears below the tool. Select a coordinate system from the Model Browser or the modeling window. On the guide bar, click Parts. Select the parts to align from the Model Browser or the modeling window. Tip: Select multiple parts by holding Ctrl and left-clicking. Click Align. The selected parts are transformed according to the coordinate system definition.
With the List Systems Tool	From the Setup ribbon, Systems tool group, click the List Systems tool. Figure 8. The Systems dialog opens. Click the Parts tab. Select an option from the System drop-down menu. Tip: Hold Ctrl while left-clicking to select the System field for multiple parts. Continue holding Ctrl while selecting a new system to align multiple parts at once.

Option

Description

With the Align Tool

From the Setup ribbon, Systems tool group, click the Align tool.
Figure 7.

A guide bar appears below the tool.
Select a coordinate system from the Model Browser or the modeling window.
On the guide bar, click Parts.
Select the parts to align from the Model Browser or the modeling window.
Tip: Select multiple parts by holding Ctrl and left-clicking.
Click Align.
The selected parts are transformed according to the coordinate system definition.

With the List Systems Tool

From the Setup ribbon, Systems tool group, click the List Systems tool.
Figure 8.

The Systems dialog opens.
Click the Parts tab.
Select an option from the System drop-down menu.
Tip: Hold Ctrl while left-clicking to select the System field for multiple parts. Continue holding Ctrl while selecting a new system to align multiple parts at once.

Scale Parts

When parts are transformed into a new coordinate system, the order of operations is to scale the part first, translate it to the origin of the new coordinate system, then rotate about the new origin.

From the Setup ribbon, Systems tool group, click the List Systems tool.

Figure 9.

The Systems dialog opens.
Click the Parts tab.
Select a part and change the Scale value.

The difference between changing a part's scale using the Systems dialog and the Scale tool is that the scaling factors in the Systems context are relative to the original size. For example, if you set a scale factor of 2.0 using the Systems dialog, the part will be 2x larger than the original. If you later set the factor to 1.5, it will then be 1.5x larger than the original. However, if you were to perform this same operation using the Scale tool, the second scaling operation (for example, the 1.5) would be applied on top of the original scaling of 2.0. In other words, the scaling is always relative to the scale of the part when entering into the tool.

Tip:

Hold Ctrl while left-clicking to select the scale field for multiple parts. Continue holding Ctrl while changing the scale value to scale multiple parts at once.
Use the and icons to search and filter parts.