Inventor^® Training

Custom User Coordinates in Autodesk Inventor - Page 3

By David Melvin, PE, TEDCF Publishing

The next step is to select a node to define the direction of the Y axes.

Now I can explain why the node defining the X direction is important. The coordinates on the UCS follow the Right Hand Rule. So if you place your right hand along the X axis so that you can close your fingers in the Y direction, your thumb will point in the Z direction. As you can see from the image above, the Z axis points upward. If you switch the nodes, selecting the left node for the X axis and the right node for the Y axis, the Z axis will point downward.

So how is a custom UCS useful?

If you look in the browser you’ll see the UCS you just created. Expand it, and you can see all the work planes and works axes you’ve added. These work features can be used to create new sketches for new features. In some cases, depending on the geometry of the part, it can be time consuming to create just the work feature you need. Now that you know how to create a custom UCS you might find that it’s faster and easier to create a UCS.

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