Help with working with Iges surfaces -

Just wondering if any of the users out there have some helpful info. -
We have a fairly unique work flow. We need to bring a set of very 'organic' shaped Iges surfaces (non - prismatic)
from Innovmetric PolyWorks v10 into an iam and constrain them to an ipt or subassembly.
The difficulty lies in the fact that the surfaces do not have any 'relative' planes or axes to use
(i.e. - dividing mid planes, or axes) within the surfaces themselves. To be clear, the surfaces do have native planes that
are locked way out in space somewhere that are generated natively in PolyWorks but are obviously difficult to lock to, say,
the side of a rectangular lever arm or round connecting tube. Any thoughts?

Look at using work points. They can be created at line endpoints, etc. Then use two work points to create a work axis or use three work point to create a work plane.

Hope this helps, Paul

Thanks Paul -
Very helpful!
I'm thinking now that once I float a prismatic part inside an organic shaped surface, I can then select the surface and create a sketch based off the prismatic part and project geometry or work points from the part and lock it in the surface file?

I am not a big fan of projecting geometry because if the relationship with the part to projected geometry fails it is tedious to repair. However if the shape of the part does not change you should not have the problem of the projected geometry not updating. I import some iges surfaced parts and have had not problems working with them because most represent supplier content or purchased parts. Based on your brief description of what you are doing I would think you will not have any problems with using projected geometry.

Thanks again Paul - I'll have to do some tests.
Our surfaces are generated by in house laser scanning various random organic shapes.
Very 'reverse engineering' style.

Zip and attach an example.