Sketch tangent arc

[yannicknielsen]

Hey there

I've now had this problem with drawing tangent arcs. In my company we often need to take a picture and draw on it - We usually do that with a combination of lines and arcs.

The arcs are created by pressing left mouse button and holding it while drawing the line - that creates a tangent constraint.

Sometimes - Despite our effort to pull the right way - the arc decides to move the opposite way - See the picture attached.

Is there any ways to fix this, change the tolerance for this behaviour, or anything at all?

Best regards

Yannick Nielsen

[JDMather]

This is a good one.

I was going to create a Screencast to show how to get reliable results, so first I practiced a bit.

Everything went well.

But then I got tied up and couldn't get an arc to go the direction I wanted - no matter what I did.  So I did not have an absolute solution.

It seems to work for me most times without thinking, but when I think about it - it gets messed up.

Use a smooth flow as though sketching with a pencil.

If it goes the wrong way - do not let go of the mouse button - trace back the wrong path and then on to the correct path.

If it still doesn't work. Abandon that one and go into the arc tool and add the tangent yourself if it isn't added automatically - and move on!

So, that is my non-solution to your problem.

[yannicknielsen]

That's the workaround I've found as well. Sometimes it just DOESN'T want to do it - AT ALL costs, apparently 🙂

But if you have to draw something that requires about 100 of those "let's try it - it doesn't work - We switch tool - We switch back again" it takes quite a bit longer, unfortunately.

[yannicknielsen · Accepted solution]

I found a solution after experiencing this problem a lot and trying various workarounds.

If you press and hold the mouse button and then draw to the side instead of trying to follow the previous arc, it seems more willing to get it the right way.

It seems odd, because it goes against everything I know about it - Pull it forth if you want it tangent that way, and pull it back if you want it tangent the other way.. And after that move the mouse to the sides.

Edit:

Forgot to mention - Delete the arc that fails, and start over again