There may be times when you need to re-orient the part.  This can happen at times when a part that you import into VisualCAD has it's WCS position skewed.  In order to work with the part it has be oriented.

We have deliberately skewed the part from Exercise #5 Connector Block so that it no longer lies parallel to any view.  Here is what it looks like:

1.The first step toward to orienting this part is to define the C-Plane.  For more about this see the topics Orient the C-Plane and Text on a Part Face in this exercise.

2.First make sure the Grid is visible.  You can toggle the Grid on/off by selecting Hide / Show Grid from the View Toolbar.

3.Now activate the view that allows you to see the planar face that you want to use to orient the part by.  In this example it is Iso View 1 .

4.Go to the Modeling Aids tab and select the C-Plane by 3 Points command.

5.Activate the End Point Snap from the Status Toolbar and select the end points in the order shown below:

6.Now right-click anywhere in the Viewport (do not select any geometry) and select Align to C-Plane.  This will align Iso View 1 parallel to the C-Plane.

7.Now we can orient the part.  Select the part and go to the Modify / Transform tab and select the Part Orient ... command.

8.This will display the Orient entire part dialog.  Pick the option to Set as current view direction.

9.Pick OK and the part appears to disappear from the Viewport.

10.Now pick the Fit View icon from the View Toolbar.  The part will appear with the WCS oriented in/on the center of the face that we used to align the C-Plane

11.Now activate the Top View and pick the Fit View icon from the View Toolbar.

12.Repeat this for the Front View and the Right View .  Remember that you have to activate the Viewport before the View Toolbar will display.  Left-click anywhere within the Viewport to activate it.

13.Activate Iso View 1 again and this time select the Iso View icon from the View Toolbar to orient this Viewport.

14.However, the part is still not oriented like the original part as shown below.  You see that the length of the part was oriented along the Y Axis and the WCS was positioned at the center of the front view.  Let's show you some additional commands to fix that.

15.Activate Iso View 1 and then from the Status Toolbar, toggle the Graphic Manipulator On.

16.Now select the part to see the Graphic Manipulator displayed.  

17.Pick the Z Rotation arc of the Graphic Manipulator to display the input window, enter 90 and then press <Enter>.

18.Now you see the part is rotated so press <Enter> to accept the rotation.

19.Zoom in on the front face of the part.

20.From the Curve Modeling tab select the command Create mid point between two points .

21.Activate the End Point Snap from the Status toolbar.

22.Select the two diagonal end points on the front face of the part as shown.

23.You can now toggle the Graphic Manipulator off.

24.With the point created, window select the entire part (and point) or simply press <Ctrl+A>.

25.From the Modify / Transform tab select the Move by mouse command.

26.The command prompt says: Pick from point or enter coordinates x,y and z.  Make sure the End Point Snap is active from the Status Toolbar and select the point you just created.

27.Now the command prompt says: Pick to point or enter coordinates x,y and z.  In the command window enter 0,0,0 and then press <Enter>.
 
You will see that the part moved to the WCS origin.  Now press <Enter> again to accept the move.

28.Now the part is aligned correctly accept for the C-Plane.  Previously the C-Plane was aligned to the XY plane of WCS.  
 
Here is a neat trick to fix that:

29.Activate the Top View .

30.Now double-left-click on the Top View tab.  This will change the display to one Viewport set to the Top View.

31.Now right-click on the Top View tab and select Quad Viewport.

32.Save the file as Construction_Planes_Completed.vcp.

Congratulations on completing this exercise!