The existing tangency constraint does not enable us to draw an arc tangent to two other arcs. The math isn't too difficult - centers of adjacent tangent arcs must be colinear with the shared point of tangency. Could you add this capability to the tangency constraint?
This could work one of two ways: 1) with arc by tangent point selected, after you establish tangency with the first object, a tangent/tangent cue would appear at the correct point on the second object, or 2) it would work like the line tangent/tangent capability (click on one, click on tangent/tangent cue on the second).
AutoCAD has a pretty good tangency capability, whereby you can string together successively tangent arcs of different radii. If the arc-by-tangent mode could enable us to set the radius, we could have that capability as well. It seems to me to be more important to set the radius than to set whatever parameter "L" currently sets in that mode.
If you could extend these concepts to include splines, it would be even more powerful. I realize that with continuously-changing curvature there is a difficulty in attempting to calculate an infinite number of possible tangencies in real time . . .
[ 03-23-2003, 03:28 PM: Message edited by: P Retondo ]
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P Retondo
The existing tangency constraint does not enable us to draw an arc tangent to two other arcs. The math isn't too difficult - centers of adjacent tangent arcs must be colinear with the shared point of tangency. Could you add this capability to the tangency constraint?
This could work one of two ways: 1) with arc by tangent point selected, after you establish tangency with the first object, a tangent/tangent cue would appear at the correct point on the second object, or 2) it would work like the line tangent/tangent capability (click on one, click on tangent/tangent cue on the second).
AutoCAD has a pretty good tangency capability, whereby you can string together successively tangent arcs of different radii. If the arc-by-tangent mode could enable us to set the radius, we could have that capability as well. It seems to me to be more important to set the radius than to set whatever parameter "L" currently sets in that mode.
If you could extend these concepts to include splines, it would be even more powerful. I realize that with continuously-changing curvature there is a difficulty in attempting to calculate an infinite number of possible tangencies in real time . . .
[ 03-23-2003, 03:28 PM: Message edited by: P Retondo ]
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