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=== Setting Up Quick Standard or Non-Principal Work Planes ===
Setting the right work plane is very important for the following reasons:
* The LCS of solid objects is drawn with local X- and Y-axes in the active work plane and the local Z-axis normal to it. This means that the bottom base of all boxes, cylinders, cones and pyramids are always drawn on the active work plane. Spheres, ellipsoids and tori are always drawn centered on the active work plane.
[[EM.Cube]]'s Work Plane tool lets you set up arbitrary work planes anywhere in the Project Workspace. In most casesOftentimes, you may simply need to set up your work plane at an offset distance from parallel to one of the three principal XY, YZ or ZX planes. For example, in layered structures, it is convenient to set up the work plane but at the interface between two layersan offset distance. [[EM.Cube]] provides an easier way to set up a work plane that is parallel to XY, YZ or ZX planes. For easy shortcuts for this purpose, you need to target an object snap point. Mouse-Hover the mouse over any object in the Project Workspace project workspace and highlight one of the snap points of that object. Then, type '''{{key|X'''}}, '''{{key|Y'''}}, or '''{{key|Z''' }} on your keyboard. This will establish a new work plane centered at the snapped point and parallel to the YZ, ZX or XY planes, respectively. Â These are simply keyboard shortcuts to quickly establish a standard work plane. Once the new work plane appears, you can open the Work Plane Dialog to changes its parameters including location, orientation and appearance.
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[[EM.Cube|EM.CUBE]]'s Work Plane Tool lets you define any arbitrary work plane using one of the above three methods. Click on the '''Work Plane''' [[File:arbitgrid_tool_tn.png]] button in the '''View Toolbar''', or select ''' Menu [[File:larrow_tn.png]] View [[File:larrow_tn.png]] Work Plane [[File:larrow_tn.png]] Arbitrary Plane''', or use the keyboard shortcut '''W''' to enable [[EM.Cube|EM.CUBE]]'s "Work Plane Mode". The Work Plane Dialog opens up at the lower right corner of the screen. Below are three different ways that you can define a new arbitrary work plane:
* Mouse-over any object in the Project Workspace and click on a face snap point, i.e. the center of a highlighted planar face. A new work plane appear overlaid on the selected face.* Or while you are in one of the three principal Xy, YZ or ZX work planes, click any blank point and drag the mouse. A semi-translucent plane perpendicular to the current work plane is drawn and displayed in the Project Workspace. The normal plane follows the movement of the mouse as you drag it. Once you reach the desired orientation, double click or type the keyboard's' ''Enter Key''' to finalize the new work plane.* Or click on any blank point and select two more points anywhere in the workspace (including other objects' snap points). A new work plane is established that passes through the three selected points. In all the three cases above, a translucent plane appears showing the location and orientation of the new work plane. The transverse axes (local X and Y axes) of the new work plane are displayed in red and green colors, respectively. A new "User Coordinate System (UCS)" is established on the new work plane. In the Work Plane Dialog, you can see the world coordinates movement of the center of the UCS and its rotation angles with respect to the project's world coordinate system (WCS). From this dialog you can change both the center coordinates and the rotation angles. This will change the location and orientation of the new arbitrary work plane. Once you are content with the location and orientation of the new work plane, you can also change its visible size. Note that the visible size of the work plane is purely for visualization purposes; otherwise, the work plane has infinite extents. You can change both '''Length''' and '''Width''' of the work plane separately. You can also change the '''Color''' and '''Transparency''' level of the work plane. <table><tr><td> [[Image:workplane_new.png|thumb|left|360px|EM.Cube's work plane dialog.]]</td></tr></table> Once a new work plane is established, the your mouse will be bound to that plane. In other words, the cursor will move freely on the surface of the new work plane. The '''Status Bar''' status bar now reports the "User Coordinates" of the cursor position as opposed to its "World Coordinates". The status bar also shows the word '''User''' in front of these coordinates. You can switch back to the world coordinates at any time by double -clicking on the word '''User''', which changes it to '''World'''. Double -clicking once again toggles the state back to the user coordinates. Any object that you draw on the new work plane will have its local X and Y-axes on this plane, and its local Z-axis normal to the plane. While a non-principal work plane is active, you can always summon its dialog and change its properties. To do so, click on the '''Work Plane''' button in the '''View Toolbar''', or select '''Menu [[File:larrow_tn.png]] View [[File:larrow_tn.png]] Work Plane [[File:larrow_tn.png]] Arbitrary Plane''', or use the keyboard shortcut '''W'''.
{{Note|A new work plane will stay in effect until you switch to one of the three principal work planes.}}