snap distance feature

[Sustainable]

I am trying to do Sample exercise 14 in the VW11 workbood fundamentals. It is a quater circle with lines coming out, like a drawing of the sunshine. The directions say Use the SNAP DISTANCE FEATURE to add 6 tangential lines spaced @ 20% increments along the arc as shown. I don't have any trouble with the 20% increments, but in there a way to make the lines at the outside of the arc without starting in the centre of the circle and then trimming.

Hope you can understand this.

[jan15]

If you want to draw a line extending radially outward from the edge of a circle, just start drawing it and watch for the "Perpendicular" cursor cue. If you want it to extend to another object, watch for "Object/Perpendicular".

The same is true if you want to draw a line tangent to a point on a circle. Watch for the "Tangent" cursor cue.

I think you have to have "Constrain Angle" on for those to work. And of course you have to have "Smart Cursor Cues" turned on (File > Preferences > VectorWorks Preferences > Edit tab).

I don't know what the "Snap to Distance" constraint does. I keep "Snap to Object", "Snap to Intersection", "Constrain Angle", and "Smart Points" on all the time, and never open the Constraints palette.

[MullinRJ]

Hi Anne,

You can also use the Duplicate Array command. 20% of the linear distance is also 20% of the angular distance, in this case 90? x 0.20 = 18?.

Draw the first line, adjust it if necessary and leave it selected. Then choose "Duplicate Array..." under the Edit menu. Select the Circular option. Number = 5 and Angle = 18 or -18, depending which way you want to rotate your copies. Positive angles rotate CCW.

If you know the coordinate of the center of your circle, type it in, OR choose the Next Mouse Click option and press OK. If you chose Next Mouse Click, you will have a target cursor. Place it over the point for the center of rotation and click. Voila.

If it's not what you wanted, Undo and try again. Check your constraints. Snap To Object should be on. There's usually more than one way to do most things in CAD.

HTH,

Raymond

[G_Hannigan]

Duplicate array is the better choice for this task. "Snap to Distance" allows subdivisions of a line, arc, etc. to appear as a smartcursor cue

("Along Line") as your cursor is dragged along it.