Planes Toggle

Overview

Planes Toggle is a utility command that toggles the visibility of coordinate system planes for the selected component in your Inventor assembly. This command is useful for quickly switching between showing and hiding reference planes, helping you focus on geometry or access reference features as needed. In addition to toggling the standard coordinate planes, Planes Toggle also sets a document parameter named ShowPlanes, which can be used in custom rules to control the visibility of additional work planes within the component.

If your component includes a rule that responds to the ShowPlanes parameter, running Planes Toggle can also toggle the visibility of any custom-named work planes according to your rule logic. This allows for advanced automation and customization, ensuring that only the planes you want visible are shown.

How It Works

1. Toggles the visibility of the standard coordinate system planes for the selected component.
2. Sets the ShowPlanes document parameter to True or False depending on the current state.
3. If a rule is set up to respond to ShowPlanes, custom work planes will also be toggled accordingly.

Usage Instructions

1. Select the component in your assembly for which you want to toggle coordinate system planes.
2. Activate the Planes Toggle command from the toolbar or menu.
3. The command will toggle the visibility of the standard coordinate system planes for the selected component.
4. If you have custom rules set up for the ShowPlanes parameter, those work planes will also be toggled.
5. Review your component to confirm that the desired reference geometry is visible or hidden as needed.

Trouble Shooting

1. If some planes do not toggle as expected, check for custom rules in your component that may override the default behavior.
2. Ensure the ShowPlanes parameter exists if you want to use it for additional logic.
3. Review your component rules for any logic that may affect plane visibility.

Examples

1. Toggle all planes in a component: Run the command to switch between showing and hiding all coordinate system planes.
2. Toggle custom work planes: Add a rule to your component to toggle visibility for specific named planes using the ShowPlanes parameter.
3. Example rule:
   ThisDoc.Document.ComponentDefinition.WorkPlanes("Top of Fitting").Visible = ShowPlanes
4. Example rule to toggle work plane visibility. Each time you run Planes Toggle, these work planes along with the standard coordinate system planes will be toggled according to your rules.
   • ThisDoc.Document.ComponentDefinition.WorkPlanes(1).Visible = ShowPlanes
   • ThisDoc.Document.ComponentDefinition.WorkPlanes("Top of Fitting").Visible = ShowPlanes
   • ThisDoc.Document.ComponentDefinition.WorkPlanes("Bottom of Fitting").Visible = ShowPlanes
   • ThisDoc.Document.ComponentDefinition.WorkPlanes("Middle of Fitting").Visible = ShowPlanes

Related Commands

1. Planes On
2. Planes Off
3. Planes On All
4. Planes Off All
5. Configure Component
6. Parameters

Assembly Tool Suites

• Configure Suite
• Construct Suite
• Create Suite
• Parametric Suite
• Part Numbering Suite
• Placement Suite
• Replace Suite
• Utility Suite