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Menu location |
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Sketch → Constraints → Tangent/Collinear Constraint |
Workbenches |
Sketcher |
Default shortcut |
T |
Introduced in version |
- |
See also |
None |
The Sketcher ConstrainTangent tool constrains two edges, or an edge and an axis, to be tangent. Lines are treated as infinite, and open curves are virtually extended as well. The constraint can also connect two edges, forcing them to be tangent at the joint. If two lines are selected, or a line and the endpoint of another line, the lines are made collinear.
See also: Drawing aids.
The two edges are made tangent. If one of the edges is a conic, a point object that has a point-on-object constraint with both (extended) edges is added.
It is not recommended to reconstruct the point of tangency by manually creating a point and constraining it to lie on both curves. It will work, but the convergence will be seriously slower, jumpier, and will require about twice as many iterations to converge than normal. If the point of tangency is needed, select two edges and an existing point instead.
The endpoints are made coincident, and the angle between the edges at that point is set to 180° (smooth joint) or 0° (sharp joint), depending on the placement of the edges before the constraint is applied.
The endpoint of one edge is constrained to lie on the other edge, and the edges are made tangent at that point.
The two edges are made tangent at a given point. The point can be any point, e.g. the center of a circle, the endpoint of an edge, or the origin, it can belong to one of the edges, and it can also be a point object. If required point-on-object constraint(s) are added to ensure the point lies on both (extended) edges. These additional constraints are called helper constraints.
Compared to direct tangency, this constraint is slower, because there are more degrees of freedom involved, but if the point of tangency is needed, it is recommended because it offers better convergence.
The two lines are made collinear.
Tangent Constraint can be created from macros and from the Python console by using the following:
# direct tangency
Sketch.addConstraint(Sketcher.Constraint('Tangent',icurve1,icurve2))
# point-to-point tangency
Sketch.addConstraint(Sketcher.Constraint('Tangent',icurve1,pointpos1,icurve2,pointpos2))
# point-to-curve tangency
Sketch.addConstraint(Sketcher.Constraint('Tangent',icurve1,pointpos1,icurve2))
# tangent-via-point (plain constraint, helpers are not added automatically)
Sketch.addConstraint(Sketcher.Constraint('TangentViaPoint',icurve1,icurve2,geoidpoint,pointpos))
where:
Sketch
is a sketch objecticurve1
, icurve2
are two integers identifying the curves to be made tangent. The integers are indices in the sketch (the values, returned by Sketch.addGeometry
).pointpos1
, pointpos2
should be 1
for start point and 2
for end point.geoidpoint
and pointpos
in TangentViaPoint
are the indices specifying the point of tangency.The Sketcher scripting page explains the values which can be used for incurve1
, incurve2
, pointpos1
, pointpos2
, geoidpoint
and pointpos
and contains further examples on how to create constraints from Python scripts.