Easy-to-Read Transcript: Using Construction Planes in Fusion 360

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Struggling to create geometry off in space because your default planes aren't where you need them to be?

I’ll show you how you can design anywhere using construction planes.

Let's start with the Offset Plane (0:13).
This is one of my favorites — it’s the quickest way you can create a plane based off something else.
You just select a face, drag it out a little bit, put in the distance you want, hit Enter, and now you have a new construction plane to sketch on.

When you open the Construct menu, you’ll see a series of different planes (0:35) you can create.
Important note: when you start a brand-new design, you automatically get three default planes — Front, Top, and Right (labeled as XY, XZ, and YZ).
These planes are infinite, so you can sketch anywhere along them, even if the small square looks limited on screen.

When you create a new plane, a Construction folder shows up in the Browser (Managing visibility 1:18).
You can drag the visual size of the plane (but not its actual position in space).
You can also toggle visibility easily — but the original three planes' visual size can't be stretched.

If you want a plane aligned to a specific object (like a point or a vertex), you have two options:

• Offset by distance — just drag or type a number.
• Offset to Object — lock it to a vertex or point (2:42), so it stays aligned even if your model changes!

This is super handy for sketches that need to update automatically as you edit your model.

You can also use construction planes to split bodies (Using planes to split parts 4:03).
Just create an Offset Plane where you want, use the Split Body tool, and now you have two separate bodies you can work with.

Thanks so much for watching — I'll see you in the next video!
🎥 Watch it here if you missed anything.