Later on, we will just ask you to "Create the default datum planes."

In this lesson we are going to look at operations to set up and use datum planes.

For the block, the sketch plane will be one of the datum planes.

Let's consider how a datum plane can be constructed.

It is a vertical distance between survey point and adopted datum plane.

If they aren't on already, turn on the datum planes (we will need them in a couple of minutes).

All rational design uses a datum plane and we have finally provided that for the skating industry.

Create the hole using the new datum plane as a sketching surface:

Regenerate your sketch and turn off the datum planes.

In order to locate the position and orientation of a datum plane, you will have a number of options.

Or, if we turn off the display of the datum planes (see Environment menu), the part looks like:

Henceforth, this virtual plane will be called "the datum plane".

Datum planes are not physical parts of the model, but are used to aid in model creation.

If we had an existing assembly datum plane that goes through the entire assembly, this would be the one to select.

It is possible to scale a datum plane differently so that, for example, it will extend only over a single feature of a complex part.

If a datum plane doesn't exist for this, you can create a Make Datum.

The new bearing had to be machined in situ and referenced back to the original datum plane.

Countries take their nearby sea levels as datum planes for calculations of Reduced levels .

For dimensioning references, use the datum planes.

A good one is the top surface of the block; an even better one is the horizontal datum plane (yellow side).

Align the centerline to the datum plane.

HighRoad also calculates cut and/or fill volume between the terrain surface and a datum plane.

Click on the tangent datum plane.

On the other hand, if the block was moved away from its current position relative to the datum planes, the hole and slot wouldn't go with it.

Although there is no indication of it in the figure, each of these notch/hole features will be created differently using different datum plane setup procedures.