The working plane
Which surface a click lands on when you are in 3D.
A click on the screen is two numbers, and a point in the model is three. The working plane is what makes up the difference: it is the flat surface your clicks land on.
In PLAN there is nothing to think about - everything lands on the floor. In a 3D view it matters, and this is the thing that catches people out.
By default it follows the face under the cursor
Point at the top of a box and draw, and the shape lands on the top of the box. Point at the side, and it lands on the side. Most of the time that is right and you never notice it.
Locking it
- The arrow keys, before you start a shape: left or right stands the plane upright, up or down lays it flat. The reading in the corner says PLANE XY, XZ or YZ.
- Alt steps through the three and latches, so you can draw in mid air where there is no face to follow.
- Esc lets go, and it follows faces again.
- K, or
/plane xz, does the same from the keyboard.
The one that bites
A shape drawn across a face has to stay on that face, or the loop never closes and no face is made. If a shape you drew in 3D refuses to fill in, that is almost always why: one point wandered off the plane. Lock the plane first and every point of the shape is held to it.
Once a line is under way the arrows stop picking the plane and start locking a direction instead, which is what they are for at that point.
Or just work flat
Draw it in PLAN, where there is no question, then push it up. That is the short way round most of the time, and it is why PLAN and push/pull between them cover so much.