Orient

Coordinate System Primary Datum

j	PCS→Orient
Keyboard	Main Menu	Toolbar

Orient acts on the last measured or recalled 3D directed feature or pair of non-directional features which could serve to create a 3D directed feature. Orient sees through transparent operations such as other PCS formation commands, distance and angles, etc. Orient establishes the direction of the primary PCS axis, with the selection of X, Y or Z determined by the MCS X, Y or Z axis to which the directed feature axis most parallel. Orient will be disabled if feature(s) are not validated as having the required components to establish a primary datum.

figure 1, Plane Orient	figure 2, Orient to Spheres

The Orient command destroys the axis and origin references of the previous PCS and, if not already visible, invokes the PCS Setup Guide. For proper function, the Orient must be followed by the Align command with one exception, after performing the orient command, you can establish the origin on the characteristics of the feature. An example might be the measuring of a XY plane, which is used to establish the primary datum through the orient command along the Z axis, as shown in figure 1. Once the orient has been completed, you can establish the Z origin on that plane. Another example might be establishing the primary axis through two spheres, as shown in figure 2.

When the Orient command is activated, Geomet will look at the last feature in the inspection report to determine whether it has the necessary information to form the Primary datum, see table 1. Should Geomet determine that the last feature requires a second feature to solve for a primary datum, then it will continue to look back in the inspection report until the next feature is found, see table 2. If the validation tests fail, Geomet will then inform the operator that the orient command has failed and will abort the operation.

	1D Point	2D Point	3D Point	Circle	Ellipse	Line	Plane	Sphere	Cylinder	Cone*
Orient							X		X	X
table 1, Orient based on a single feature

	1D Point	2D Point	3D Point	Circle	Ellipse	Line	Plane	Sphere	Cylinder	Cone*
1D Point
2D Point
3D Point			X					X		X
Circle
Ellipse
Line
Plane
Sphere			X					X		X
Cylinder
Cone			X					X		X
Cones: The apex of a cone or the centroid of the diameter along the axis of the cone are treated similar to a 3D point.
table 2, Orient using 2 feature combinations