Elliptical Cylinder Creation Mode

Modeling: ShapesCylinderElliptical Cylinder

In this mode, you may interactively define an elliptical cylinder by double-clicking its base center point, its semi-axes, and its height in the currently active coordinate system. The axis of the elliptical cylinder will always be oriented perpendicular to the currently active working plane. To define an elliptical cylinder with a different axis, you must first change the working plane’s orientation by using local coordinate systems.

You may change the view at any time by using the standard view changing options.

Creation steps

• When you first enter the mode, you will be asked to double-click to mark the base center point of the elliptical cylinder. The cursor’s location will be projected onto the currently active working plane to define the center (always remember to release the mouse button after double-clicking, before dragging to the next point).

• After the first point has been set, you may specify the first semi axis of the base ellipse by again double-clicking at a location on the working plane. During this operation, a rubber-band line will be displayed indicating the current size and location of the base ellipse’s first semi axis.

• The next step allows you to specify the second semi-axis of the base ellipse in the same manner as before. During this operation, a rubber-band ellipse will be displayed indicating the current size and location of the base ellipse.

• In the last step, you may specify the height of the elliptical cylinder by double-clicking a distance perpendicular to the working plane. During this operation, a rubber-band elliptical cylinder will be displayed indicating the size and location of the currently defined cylinder.

• Finally an Elliptical Cylinder dialog box appears where you may check your settings and assign a name, a component and a material for the new elliptical cylinder.

Display of locations

Throughout this mode, the current mouse location will be displayed in the lower right corner of the main plot window.

Snap mode

All positions will be adjusted to the snap grid when active.

Cancel interactive mode

You may cancel this interactive mode at any time by pressing the ESC key. Pressing ESC again in the following dialog box will terminate the elliptical cylinder creation.

Undo last double-click

You may go back to the last step by pressing the BACKSPACE key. Pressing this key in the interactive mode will undo the last double-click.

Numerical specification of coordinates (TAB key and SHIFT+TAB key)

To precisely specify the shape coordinates, you may press the TAB key whenever a point must be double-clicked. A small coordinate dialog box will open in which you may specify the shape coordinates numerically.

The dialog entries take over the coordinates at the cursor position on the working plane. However, if the SHIFT+TAB key is pressed, the coordinates are always set to zero.

Pick tools to specify coordinates

You may snap the location to a previously defined shape’s corner, cylinder radius, etc., by activating a point pick tool, at the moment when the next point must be specified. The double-click will be processed by the pick functionality to specify the location of a point. The picked point will then be taken as the selected location.

See also

Working Plane Properties, Standard view changing options, Snap grid, Elliptical Cylinder, Coordinate dialog box, Point pick tool, Material Parameters.