Plane Querying

DRAW Reference Manual

Section Planes : Plane Querying

Once a plane has been created, it can be queried in the following ways:


Q DESC	- at Plane level (or at WPOS elements)

The plane referred to by the PLRF attribute of the VSEC can be queried by:


Q PLRF DESC	- at VSEC level

It is possible to query whether a given 3D point is on the retained or discarded side by using the following:


Q SIDE @	- at plane level
Q SIDE /plane_identifier @	- from anywhere
Q SIDE /plane_identifier E value N value U value	- from anywhere

In the latter case, only two coordinates need to be given dependent on which orthogonal view direction you are working on, e.g. for a Plan view only the Easting and Northing are required.

You can make any plane visible in a suitable VIEW (i.e. one that is orthogonal to the axis of the plane) by using the following commands:


SKETCH PLANE IN /view_identifier	- at Plane level
SKETCH PLANE /plane_identifier	- at VIEW level
SKETCH PLANE /plane_identifier IN /view_identifier	- from anywhere

Figure 5:7.: Use of the Stepped Plane (SPLA) illustrates the SKETCH PLANE command in use. Once the plane has been sketched then it will always be visible, irrespective of VIEW or area view manipulation. Only one plane at a time can be sketched. A plane can be erased by either of the following commands:


ERASE PLANE	- at VIEW level
ERASE PLANE IN /view_name	- from anywhere

Note that the sketch facility is only a ‘drafting aid’ and is not part of the VIEW annotation. Any change made to a sketched Plane will not result in a corresponding change to the displayed sketch - another SKETCH PLANE command will be needed.