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APRIL 1999

Here is a tip I found on Olaf Corten's web site.  I really like the equation information, so I have reproduced it here with some additional insights.  Incidentally, Olaf has a nice assortment of Pro/E tips.  Check them out at: http://utopia.knoware.nl/~ocorten/tips.htm

View Orientation & Default Views

There are a few different ways to orient a view.  The first, perhaps most obvious, is using of datum planes and FRONT, RIGHT, TOP, etc... Just like orienting a view for sketcher.

Another way is dynamic orientation using VIEW > SPIN/PAN/ZOOM (in v.20) or VIEW > ORIENTATION > ANGLES (in previous versions).  With dynamic orientation, you can rotate the part with respect to the screen (or spin center in v.20) about the Horizontal (H), Vertical (V), and Normal (C) axes of the screen.  In other words, the view is oriented with respect to the screen (or spin center), not to geometry on the part.

With dynamic orientation the order of the movement is important.  If you rotate NORMAL 30 degrees then VERTICAL 30 degrees, the result will be quite different than rotating VERTICAL 30 degrees then NORMAL 30 degrees.  In version 20 the icons in the ORIENTATION dialog box make this much clearer.  Play with it a little to see the results. 

To set a view orientation as DEFAULT, you can use the ENVIRONMENT settings, OR set the default in your config.pro.  Pro/E has 3 selectable settings for the default view:  ISOMETRIC, TRIMETRIC, and USER_DEFINED.  Isometric and trimetric are pre-defined orientations shown below:  (The equations are from Olaf.)

ISOMETRIC:

   Vertical   = -45
   Horizontal =  35.26439
     = ArcSin(1/(Sqrt(3)))

- Due to rounding errors in Pro/E, use the value: 35.26379

The proportion of the sides with respect to the view is 1 : 1 : 1.

April 1999 - Isometric
TRIMETRIC:

   Horizontal =  51.57
   Vertical   = -22.91

The proportion of the three sides with respect to the screen view is approx. 1 : 3/4 : 8/9.

April 1999 - Trimetric
To set one of these orientations as your DEFAULT view:
   - For an individual Pro/E session use the ENVIRONMENT menu.
   - For a permanent change, include one of these lines in your config.pro:
ORIENTATION ISOMETRIC
or
ORIENTATION TRIMETRIC
If you would like something completely different, create your own default view -- which can be anything you wish to set in your config.pro.  Here are some popular examples:
DIMETRIC:

   Vertical   = -20.7048
 = ArcSin(Tan(ArcSin(1/3)))
   Horizontal =  19.4712
     = ArcSin(1/3)

The proportion of the three sides is 1 : 1 : 0.5.

April 1999 - Bimetric
UNTITLED:  (as far as I know)

   Vertical   = -40
   Horizontal =  30

A generic default view - something close to Isometric that's a little easier to visualize.

(This is my personal favorite.)

April 1999 - Generic
UNTITLED:  (as far as I know)

   Vertical   = -15
   Horizontal =  10

A simple, easy to visualize default view orientation.

April 1999 - Generic
To use one of these, or to make your own default view, include the following lines in your config.pro:
ORIENTATION  USER_DEFAULT
Y_ANGLE -40      (This defines the VERTICAL indicated above.)
X_ANGLE  30      (This defines the HORIZONTAL indicated above.)

NOTE:  The order of  X_ANGLE  and  Y_ANGLE  in the config.pro is important.  Notice that the TRIMETRIC view above requires the  X_ANGLE  (Horizontal) first.

ALSO NOTE:  If the  X_ANGLE  and  Y_ANGLE  lines appear without the  ORIENTATION  line, Pro/E will assume it is the default view you desire.

If you wish to have access to more than one of these views in a part, build a mapkey to orient the part as desired and save the view using SAVED VIEWS.  This can be a real time saver especially if you wish to use one of the views on a drawing.

I hope you enjoyed this information.  Once again I'd like to thank Olaf Corten for some of the above information.

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