The letters X, Y and Z represent the axes. The Z axis is the default orientation. The point close to the Z axis is the free rotation handle used for freely rotating the compass and the document's objects at the same time.
The red square is the compass manipulation handle you use to drag the compass and place on objects to be manipulated. You can also rotate objects around this point.
The base of the compass, the XY plane, is the privileged plane. This concept is not useful when simply using the Select command. It is only useful when using application commands that use manipulators which require working planes (for example, when creating planar patches or modifying control points using the FreeStyle Shaper).
What Can You Do With the 3D Compass?
The 3D compass lets you:
- Manipulate viewpoints using the mouse and compass: this is just another way of panning and rotating all objects in the document at the same time.
- Move and rotate non-constrained objects using
the mouse and compass .
Moving objects in this context means physically moving them so as to redefine their spatial coordinates with respect to the absolute axis system in a document. Moving must not be confused with panning an object, which simply modifies the viewpoint from which you look at an object: the position of the object in the document remains the same. - Move and rotate non-constrained objects using the Edit... contextual command.
- Lock the compass orientation.
- Snap the compass automatically onto a selected object.
- Set the plane in which you move objects parallel to the screen.
- switch the privileged plane to the XZ or YZ planes of the compass.
- Use the privileged plane as a working plane in applications such as the FreeStyle Shaper application, for example, when manipulating control point manipulators on planar patches and curves.
If you are also using the Assembly Design application, which provides a number of advanced positioning tools, consider the 3D compass as a preliminary tool for positioning components in space prior to fine positioning of those components within the assembly.
If you are using a space mouse, you can also manipulate the 3D compass when it is in the scene, otherwise the space mouse lets you manipulate the viewpoint.
Which Objects Are We Talking About?
You can use the 3D compass to manipulate non-constrained objects, in other words, objects not linked together by constraints. However, you can manipulate groups of objects in assemblies which are linked to each other by constraints.
About Moving Objects with the Compass
When you create a pad, for example, you create it from a sketch which itself is located in a fixed plane, either a reference plane or a plane you create.
When you drag and drop the compass onto the pad (refer to Manipulating Objects Using the Mouse and Compass for more details), a message will inform you that certain elements in the pad are fixed (the plane from which the sketch was created), and therefore you cannot move the pad.
If you right-click the sketch, then select Parent/Children, you see that the parent of the sketch is a fixed plane. You cannot move the pad until you have either isolated the fixed element (using the Isolate contextual command).
