{"id":25078,"date":"2019-12-05T11:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T16:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/?p=25078"},"modified":"2019-12-04T10:06:41","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T15:06:41","slug":"using-the-normal-to-command-a-neat-orientation-trick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/2019\/12\/using-the-normal-to-command-a-neat-orientation-trick.html","title":{"rendered":"Using the ‘Normal To’ Command \u2013 A Neat Orientation Trick"},"content":{"rendered":"

This question came up during one of our classes regarding model orientation. The challenge was to orient a model normal to a face but not have the view orientation use default \u201cY\u201d orientation for that face.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s actually a very simple solution once you know the trick. Simply put, select 2 faces instead of 1 face for the\u00a0Normal To<\/strong>\u00a0command! The first face selected will be the face rotated to normal and the second face will define the top of the view orientation.<\/p>\n

For example, selecting the face of the model shown and choosing\u00a0Normal To<\/strong>\u00a0ends up with the following view orientation:<\/p>\n

\"Model<\/p>\n

\"Model\"<\/p>\n

We can control the top of the view orientation with\u00a0Normal To<\/strong>\u00a0if we select the normal to face first, then CTRL-select a second face to designate the top for the orientation, as seen:<\/p>\n

\"1st<\/p>\n

\"Another<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another example where we control which side is \u201cup\u201d for our\u00a0Normal To<\/strong>\u00a0view:<\/p>\n

\"1st<\/p>\n

\"Model<\/p>\n

Neat trick isn\u2019t it? This can be\u00a0especially valuable when defining Named Views<\/strong>\u00a0in a model to use in a drawing. I hope you find it useful in your day-to-day SOLIDWORKS routine!<\/p>\n

\n

This blog is authored by John Setzer, GSC\u2019s Training Product Manager. John discovered his love of teaching early in life. He worked his way through college as a youth coach, umpire, and referee before earning his bachelor\u2019s degree in education. As Training Manager at GSC, he has been sharing his SOLIDWORKS wisdom with GSC customers ever since \u2013 over 20 years! John is a Certified SOLIDWORKS Expert (CSWE), a Certified SOLIDWORKS Instructor, and a Certified SOLIDWORKS Technician. As the only CSWE with a state certification in teaching, John is well-versed is teaching all types of learning styles. John is a regular contributor to the GSC blog, available at www.gsc-3d.com\/blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This question came up during one of our classes regarding model orientation. The challenge was to orient a model normal to a face but not have the view orientation use default \u201cY\u201d orientation for that face. There\u2019s actually a very<\/p>\n... Continued<\/a>","protected":false},"author":170,"featured_media":25081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,35],"tags":[466,1876,889,62,414],"class_list":["post-25078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solidworks","category-tips-tricks","tag-modeling","tag-orientation","tag-solidworks","tag-technical-tips","tag-tutorial"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/170"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25078"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25430,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25078\/revisions\/25430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}