Work Area

The work area is where you view and manipulate models and components.

This page discusses:

See Also
Context Toolbars
Specifying Preferences
Using the View Selector

Trimetric Planes



You can use the Trimetric planes XY, YZ, and ZX for model orientation. The blue arrows indicate the default coordinate axes; + X-axis, + Y-axis, and + Z-axis.

Reference Triad

Helps orient you when viewing products in the work area.

By default, the triad display is set to None. To display a chair or a camera in the triad, select it in the app preferences.

Use the triad in the upper right corner of the work area to pick a plane for viewing a model. When you hover over a side of the triad, the triad face is shaded. Click the highlighted triad face and the triad and the model becomes normal to the selected plane. When you click the same face successively, the view flips 180 degrees. Click any axis in the triad and the component in the work area becomes normal to that axis.

Click the arrow next to the triad to open a context toolbar with additional tools. Depending on your app, context toolbar options vary.

  • Click Translucency Manager to display the translucency slider. Drag the translucency slider to apply translucency to the selected part or face.
  • Click Normal To to display a model from the selected plane.
  • Click View Selector to open the View Selector tool.
  • Click Reframe to recenter the view on the active model.
  • Click Trimetric View to apply a standard trimetric view.
  • Click Toggle Triad Model to change the triad model between a chair, camera, and removing the triad model.
  • Click Pin View Bar to pin the view bar to the graphics area. Click to unpin the view bar from the graphics area.
  • Exit Isolate appears next to the triad when a component has been isolated using the Isolate command in the context toolbar. Click Exit Isolate to exit the Isolate command.
  • Exit Translucency appears next to the triad when a component has been selected for translucency using the Translucency Manager command in the context toolbar. You can specify the level of translucency from the translucency slider. Click Exit Translucency to exit the command.

Rotating Model Clockwise and Counter-Clockwise

When the triad is in an orthogonal view, a set of controls appear around the triad to enable spinning the model 90 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise.

  • Click Spin Clockwise to spin the model 90 degrees clockwise.
  • Click Spin Counterclockwise to spin the model 90 degrees counter-clockwise.
Note: The rotation arrows of the triad are visible when the triad is in the Orthogonal view. When you rotate the model, the arrows disappear.

Exit Button Stacking

If you have more than one active command running, the exit buttons stack in a menu at the triad.

If one command is active, that exit button is displayed. If multiple commands are active, one exit button displays with a menu. Click the triangle to display the other active commands.



If the command shown at the top of the menu list is exited, the next active command moves up the menu list. When all of the active commands are exited, no exit buttons appear.

Reference Geometry

To hide or show the reference geometry in the Design Manager, click Top , Front , or Right and select Hide from the context toolbar. Click View Filter to hide or show all the reference planes with one click.

Callouts and Handles

Callouts, which appear in the work area when you select certain tools, let you change values directly in the work area. Handles let you dynamically move and change certain parameters within the work area. For more information about the Robot and handles, see About the Robot.