Smart Axes Tool
The Smart Axes Tool helps you orient the local axes of components.
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The Smart Axes Tool helps you orient the local axes of components.
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It is accessible from the axes icon in the toolbox or from the OpenCutList → Orient Parts menu.
OpenCutList computes the dimensions of a part along the local axes of the underlying component. They are defined as the lengths of the (blue) bounding box of the part. For a good computation of the dimensions, the bounding box of a part should therefore preferably closely surround it.
The dimensions of a part do not depend on the position of the local axes (the axes can be translated), but do depend on their spatial orientation.
Some of these assumptions are deliberate choices. We could have made other choices, but these seemed to be the most convenient to understand.
If you flip the local axes in such a way that the most positive face is the opposite face, then you have told OpenCutList that the other side is now the front face. Remember, changing the local axes does not affect the definition of the part, but only its reading by OpenCutList.
The Smart Axes Tool supports several actions (Flip, Swap length ↔ width, Swap front ↔ backside, Adapt axes). Each action can have several modifiers. All possible actions are visible at the top of the screen.
The Flip action is more convenient than the SketchUp tool, because it automatically detects parts under the mouse pointer and lets you decide along which direction (as seen by OpenCutList) a part must be flipped. This can be L for length, W for width or T for thickness. Also, you do not have to select the part to flip it.
Flipping only affects the selected instance.
This tool orients the local axes in such a way that length and width (the red and green axes, respectively), as seen by OpenCutList, are swapped.
Swapping length and width affects all instances. It operates on the component definition.
This tool orients the local axes in such a way that the thickness (on the blue axis) is swapped. This reverses the blue axis, and (because the set of axes must remain right-handed) also the green axis. By convention, the front face is the face with the most positive coordinate on the blue axis.
Swapping Front - Backside affects all instances.
For an even finer control, this tool lets you pick the front of a part. It will then adapt the axes to match length and width. The thickness is automatically the last direction. When moving the mouse over a part, a white arrow shows the current front and the direction of the length.
The arrow shows the direction of the old and new red (length) axis. Hover a face and an edge displays the future setting, click to confirm.
Adapt axes affects all instances.
Use TAB or SHIFT + TAB to navigate forward or backward through actions, respectively.
Use CTRL + TAB (on Windows) or OPTION + TAB (on Mac) to navigate through the action's modifier.
The default set of local axes is . When the set of axes is placed on a vertex of the bounding box, the blue axis shows the direction of the thickness of a part. It does not matter whether the blue axis points in or out of the part, but the face which is the most positive along the blue axis will be considered the front face of the part, and the opposite face the back face.
