XY Plane

[rednour]

I do a lot of 3d drawings in AutoCAD 2008. Often I will move lines from a 2d drawing and find that some of the lines are now off the plane. For example I would like to lock my drawing on the xy plane and not have it on the z axis How do I prevent this from happening

Steve

[ReMark]

Controlling what plane your lines are drawn on requires the understanding and use of the UCS. Also make use of the UCS icon as a reminder of where you are in the realm of 3D at any given time. A visual hint is often a good reminder.

[rednour]

Appreciate the input. Althought I haven't verified it, I have been told that in Solidworks you can lock a specific plane for drawing. Is this possible in AutoCad??

[ReMark]

Other than Ortho mode and Polar Tracking there is no command specific to constraining an object's creation or movement in a particular axis or plane in 2008. The Move gizmo was introduced in 2010 to allow the user to denote a specific axis or plane for the purposes of moving an object.

[rednour]

Thanks, Kind of what I thought....

[ReMark]

I remember that a program called Accudraw had a command called Axis Lock. Maybe AutoDesk thought it had everything covered using existing commands. I suppose too you could use Grid and Snap but some people find their use too constricting. I guess you can't win.