The solid coordinate system is the three-dimensional, Cartesian coordinate system used to describe the geometry of a Creo solid model. In a part, the solid coordinate system describes the geometry of the surfaces and edges. In an assembly, the solid coordinate system also describes the locations and orientations of the assembly members.

You can visualize the solid coordinate system in Creo application by creating a coordinate system datum with the option Default. Distances measured in solid coordinates correspond to the values of dimensions as seen by the Creo user.

Solid coordinates are used by Creo Object TOOLKIT C++ for all the methods that look at geometry and most of the methods that draw three-dimensional graphics.

The screen coordinate system is two-dimensional coordinate system that describes locations in a Creo window. This is an intermediate coordinate system after which the screen points are transformed to screen pixels. All the models are first mapped to the screen coordinate system. When the user zooms or pans the view, the screen coordinate system follows the display of the solid, so a particular point on the solid always maps to the same screen coordinate. The mapping changes only when the view orientation is changed.

Screen coordinates are used by some of the graphics methods, the mouse input methods, and all methods that draw graphics or manipulate items on a drawing.

The window coordinate system is similar to the screen coordinate system. After mapping the models to the screen coordinate system, they are mapped to the window coordinate before being drawn to screen pixels based on screen resolution. When pan or zoom values are applied to the coordinates in the screen coordinate system, they result in window coordinates. When an object is first displayed in a window, or the option View ▶ Refit is used, the screen and window coordinates are the same.

Window coordinates are needed only if you need to take account of zoom and pan—for example, to find out whether a point on the solid is visible in the window, or to draw two-dimensional text in a particular window location, regardless of pan and zoom.

The drawing coordinate system is a two-dimensional system that describes the location on a drawing relative to the bottom, left corner, and measured in drawing units. For example, on a U.S. letter-sized, landscape-format drawing sheet that uses inches, the top, right-corner is (11, 8.5) in drawing coordinates.

The Creo Object TOOLKIT C++ methods and properties that manipulate drawings generally use screen coordinates.

The drawing view coordinate system is used to describe the locations of entities in a drawing view.

An assembly has its own coordinate system that describes the positions and orientations of the member parts, subassemblies, and the geometry of datum features created in the assembly.

When an assembly is retrieved into memory each member is also loaded and continues to use its own solid coordinate system to describe its geometry.

This is important when you are analyzing the geometry of a subassembly and want to extract or display the results relative to the coordinate system of the parent assembly.

A coordinate system datum can be created anywhere in any part or assembly, and represents a user-defined coordinate system. It is often a requirement in a Creo Object TOOLKIT C++ application to describe geometry relative to such a datum.

Every sketch has a coordinate system used to locate entities in that sketch. Sketches used in features will use a coordinate system different from that of the solid model.

Methods Introduced:

The view matrix describes the transformation from solid to screen coordinates. The method pfcView::GetTransform provides the view matrix for a model in the view. The method pfcView::SetTransform allows you to specify the transformation matrix for a model in the view.

To get and set the transformation matrix for a model in the current view, use the methods pfcViewOwner::GetCurrentViewTransform and pfcViewOwner::SetCurrentViewTransform.

The method pfcView::Rotate rotates an object , relative to the X, Y, or Z axis for the specified rotation angle.

To rotate an object in the current view, use the method pfcViewOwner::CurrentViewRotate.

To transform from screen to solid coordinates, invert the transformation matrix using the method pfcTransform3D::Invert.

Method Introduced:

The method pfcCoordSystem::GetCoordSys provides the location and orientation of the coordinate system datum in the coordinate system of the solid that contains it. The location is in terms of the directions of the three axes and the position of the origin.

Methods Introduced

You can alter the pan and zoom of a window by using a Screen Transform object. This object contains three attributes. PanX and PanY represent the horizontal and vertical movement. Every increment of 1.0 moves the view point one screen width or height. Zoom represents a scaling factor for the view. This number must be greater than zero.

Method Introduced:

The method pfcComponentPath::GetTransform provides the matrix for transforming from the solid coordinate system of the assembly member to the solid coordinates of the parent assembly, or the reverse.