To enter a direction (e.g. when entering the end point of a pipe ), the following line with option titles appears


The following options are available for determining the direction:

  • Accept the default value (in this example specify length)
  • specify direction, i.e. a triplet of numbers, via the keyboard;
  • key in X, -X,(resp.MX in BricsCAD), Y, -Y,(resp.MY in BricsCAD) Z or -Z (resp.MZ in BricsCAD) and confirm by pressing the <RET> key. The option titles correspond to the following directions:

         X           → 1, 0, 0

-X(MX) → -1, 0, 0

 Y           → 0, 1, 0

-Y(MY) → 0, -1, 0

         Z          → 0, 0, 1

-Z(MZ) → 0, 0, -1

  • Enter an angle, after selecting one of the following two options:


<A> → After selecting this option, the prompt to enter an angle in the xy-plane appears:

Specify angle in XY-plane <0.0>:


The angle is entered in degrees. With u (60°) as entered angle, the following direction P is determined

P = (cos u, sin u, 0).

Look the following example:




You get as directions:

u =   60°  →  P = (0.5, 0.87, 0.0) or

u = 150°  →  Q = (-0.87, 0.5, 0.0),


<S> →        After selecting this option, you are prompted to enter an angle in the xy-plane

Specify angle in XY-plane <0.0>:

and an angle from the XY plane in the Z direction


Specify angle from XY-plane <0.0>:

The angle is entered in degrees. The orientation of the angles corresponds to the following sketch:



The following direction P is determined from the entered angles u and v

P = (cos u * cos v, sin u * cos v, sin v).


In the sketch above the following example is shown  

u = 45° and  

v = 60°. 


The direction of P is defined:

P = (0.35, 0.35, 0.87).