How are workplanes created?

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Advance Steel 2011 has a new feature - workplane creation. The workplanes help in the modeling of the structural elements.

Workplanes can be defined in three ways:

The workplanes can be created in the Project Explorer by selecting the Workplanes tab and right clicking and selecting "Create workplane" or from the " AS Modeling" -> "Workplanes" ribbon by selecting "Create workplanes".

After choosing the desired command, Advance Steel will display a window where you select how to define the workplane.

By selecting this method, the position of the workplane will depend on the position and orientation of the UCS, in the XoY plane. Select a point where the workplane will be positioned and enter a name for the workplane.

The workplane will be positioned in the XoY plane and the name will be displayed next to the lines that define it and in the Project Explorer.

The plane will be defined by any three points you select. When you select this option, you must consider that the new workplane is not dependent on the position and orientation of the UCS.
You can create help-lines in order to precisely define the work plane.

Define the three points and name the workplane.

The new workplane will be created by these 3 points.

Select 3 points, but take into account what each point represents.
The first point, "Select a point", will be the origin of the workplane (the center of the square limited by the dotted lines).
This point is the origin of the plane and can coincide with the "First point for direction" (see next step) that defines the Z direction of the workplane.

The next point, "First point for direction", will be the first point from the segment that defines the Z direction of the new workplane.

The last point, "Second point for direction", is the second point of the segment that defines the Z direction of the new workplane.
With these two points, a line perpendicular to the plane is created.

The last step is to name the newly created workplane.

It can be seen, that the line is perpendicular to the new plane. The position of the workplane does not depend on the position and orientation of the UCS.