In this Video Tech Tip, we take a look at creating reference planes inside of SOLIDWORKS. Reference planes are typically added to models to create geometry at a different angle or orientation instead of just your standard front, top or right planes.
If you want to know how to create a new plane in SOLIDWORKS, navigate to the Features toolbar > Reference Geometry > Plane.
You have a significant amount of flexibility when creating planes. If you want to create a plane that is offset from a standard plane (top, front or right), simply select it and set the specific distance. You can even set constraints such as parallel or perpendicular to the plane.
Once selected, you have the ability to clear out a reference. This allows you to easily create planes with a variety of complexities.
Another option with this feature is to create a plane between axes. Once the items are selected, the plane that’s coincident to both axes will appear. You can also pick a series of points to get a plane that is the combination of the selected vertices.
If you want to create reference planes for your design but don’t have any other geometry, simply sketch or use axes to create the geometry. Since every axis is the intersection of two planes in space, you can create a planar reference for any design.
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