Best Fit Dtm Plane to several points

[wintersm]

I have an input of a stp file in the shape of a dish (3d surface). The top edge of the dish is not coplanar. It is close, but definitely not coplanar. I would like to create a "best fit" datum plane using several points along the top edge of the dish, or the entire curve (top edge) if someone could tell me how.


I am sure I could get the X, Y, Z components of a bunch of points with respect to a coordinate system, then use some external calculator to generate a best fit plane, but I am lazy, and would like to do this in ProE if possible.


Any thoughts?





Thank you for any/all help


-Mike

 

[E-Cognition]

I'll give it a shot . . .

1. Make a plane that has the appropriate number of parameters. (Up to 3 angular and 3 linear but not necessarily all six)
2. Create measure features from a number of the Top Edge points (At least three) to the plane
3. Create an Analysis Relation feature to sum all of the measures
4. Do a Feasibility Study to minimize the Sum!

The resultant parametric modification will yield the Best Fit . . . .

(Maybe there's a Video Tutorial Topic in there somewhere . . . Thanks

)