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Midpoint Line Command?

16 REPLIES 16
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Message 1 of 17
JDMather
8248 Views, 16 Replies

Midpoint Line Command?

Anyone see a need for a midpoint line command, that is, start the command click desired location for midpoint and then select desired location for an endpoint and second endpoint is equal distance.

 

I find myself adding coincident constraints to midpoints of lines all of the time - so now I sketch out in space and then constrain.

 

(Did I explain this well enough?)  Picture is of current workflow, not the desired workflow.


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Autodesk Inventor 2019 Certified Professional
Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Certified Professional
Certified SolidWorks Professional


The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel


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16 REPLIES 16
Message 2 of 17
MikahB
in reply to: JDMather

I use this same workflow all the time - enough that I often get annoyed trying to hit the sweet spot to find the midpoint after I draw the line initially (especially if it's long).  A Midpoint line would be very useful for me.

Mikah Barnett
All Angles Design
Product Design Suite Ultimate 2014
Windows 7 Professional x64
Intel i7-3770k @ 4.5GHz
32GB DDR3-2400 RAM
GeForce GTX 670 4GB
Message 3 of 17
esmall1894
in reply to: JDMather

Oh yes, mid point line would be a sweet addition to the tool box.Smiley Very Happy

Eric Small
Autodesk Inventor Professional
Sr. Mechanical Designer
Message 4 of 17
CCarreiras
in reply to: esmall1894

Shure, yes.



Regards.
CCarreiras
Message 5 of 17
Anonymous
in reply to: JDMather

I could see that being handy at times.

Message 6 of 17
jtylerbc
in reply to: JDMather

Yes, I definitely see a use for this.  I used the "draw in space, then constrain" workaround at least 6 times just yesterday.  Would love having a more efficient way of doing it.

Message 7 of 17
SBix26
in reply to: JDMather

Yes- I would put this on a keyboard alias and use it frequently

Message 8 of 17
jfleeger
in reply to: JDMather

I would use it everyday!

Message 9 of 17
acad-caveman
in reply to: JDMather

Great idea.

Short of that implementation tough, I think a similarly good solution would be an automatic constraint creation using grip-snap-drag.

That is draw the line ( or arc or circle or whatever ) click on it to get the grips (ACAD like ), grab the grip of your choice and drag it

to wherever you want it and create an immediate coincident constraint ( or not if you choose to be holding the shift key )

 

Alternately, a line always has 2 endpoints and a midpoint. A circle always has a center and 4 quadrant points.

Just like a line, an arc always has 2 end and 1 midpoint. Like a circle, an ellipse always has center and quadrant points.

So, the question is:

If we can drag a line by hovering near it's end and grab it's enpoint, then drag it to another point and automatically create

a coincident constraint, then why the heck can we not do the same with it's midpoint or any other "guaranteed to always exist" point of any other entity?

 

I know Inventor isn't the all hated Autocad, and I know AutoCAD can't do this parametrically, but it CAN do this kind of

moves with absolute ease. It's only a small step from there to make it parametric capable.

Message 10 of 17
JDMather
in reply to: acad-caveman


@acad-caveman wrote:

If we can drag a line by hovering near it's end and grab it's enpoint, then drag it to another point and automatically create

a coincident constraint, then why the heck can we not do the same with it's midpoint or any other "guaranteed to always exist" point of any other entity?

 


 

Your right.  It might be a little harder to find a midpoint and drag than it is to find an endpoint and drag, but it looks like it should be doable.  I want to shoot any holes in my proposal if there are any.  The one problem I see with the click and drag method is if during other sketching Inventor is constantly trying to highlight midpoints - I hate when they added this to idw dimensioning.

 

I like the SolidWorks method - Ctlr click the line and point and add midpoint relation (constraint), but I think the midpoint line would be one up on SWx functionality as they don't have it either (2010).

 


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Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Certified Professional
Certified SolidWorks Professional


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Message 11 of 17
mcgyvr
in reply to: JDMather

I don't think I've every needed a midpoint line.. Nor do I remember that I have sketched a line and added a midpoint constraint. I guess its just the geometries of the parts I always make never require that.



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Message 12 of 17
acad-caveman
in reply to: JDMather

 


@Anonymous wrote:
The one problem I see with the click and drag method is if during other sketching Inventor is constantly trying to highlight midpoints - I hate when they added this to idw dimensioning.

 

Point ( pun intended ) well taken. Solidworks's explicit selection is better in that case, tough it is still limited to only the midpoint of an entity. Of course, SW also cannot do a snap to coincident move.

I gueess then maybe the visible grips upon item selection is a possible solution. If you don't neeed it, just turn off grips ( possible in ACAD I think ), otherwise use it to your benefit.

 

 

 

 

Message 13 of 17
ANTONIODOMIT
in reply to: JDMather

Yes I would like to have it

Message 14 of 17
IgorMir
in reply to: JDMather

Hi Jeffrey;

Yes, you have explained it clear. That would be a good option to have. I too, resolve to introduce a sketch point in the middle of the line when needed to constrain a geometry from this location.

It would be good, if that ability became available. 

To top it up - it would although help to streamline the sketch creation if the dimensions wouldn't get deleted automatically with the deleted geometry. I would like to see these dimensions as orphaned instead.  So I could re-assign them to another geometry if needed. That way I would avoid seeing dimensions names as d1125, for example, in the Parameters DB. While the sketches only have twenty of them or less.

Cheers,

Igor.

 


@JDMather wrote:

Anyone see a need for a midpoint line command, that is, start the command click desired location for midpoint and then select desired location for an endpoint and second endpoint is equal distance.

 

I find myself adding coincident constraints to midpoints of lines all of the time - so now I sketch out in space and then constrain.

 

(Did I explain this well enough?)  Picture is of current workflow, not the desired workflow.


Web: www.meqc.com.au
Message 15 of 17
robertast
in reply to: IgorMir

10 years on this topic. Now, I really don’t understand what’s wrong with you about the midpoint. After all, it’s happening now, constrain is in the constraints to midpoints. Do you want it to look different?
As for the parameter name, if you don't want to see "d10000", assign the name to the dimension immediately, and after deleting you will be able to use the same again. @IgorMir  is strange to you to see such messages from you in the "old wolf" inventory.

I added a video about the points and the name of the parameter

 

Message 16 of 17
IgorMir
in reply to: robertast

Hi, Robertas;

The post was old, indeed. But there are still some cases, where you cannot constraint the geometry to the midpoint, without introducing the Sketch point in the middle first. And that's what Jeffrey was implying. Or so I understood him, anyway.
As for the dimensions - I need to look into it in more details. What you have shown in the video of yours is somewhat cheating. The new dimension you have introduced - will have its unique name. You have just overriden it while editing - with the one, which got deleted. It is not what I have been talking about.
I am not a big fun of renaming the dimensions. In fact - I prefer to give them description (comments) rather than change the names of them all together. The downside of it is - once the dimension is erased - the follow up dimension will get its number (name) generated by the software automatically. As a result of it - some times you open a file and you see in the Properties DB only handful of parameters, but their names are quoting three digits in it. I would like sketch dimensions  to behave in a similar way as they do in drawing environment. So they can get re-attached to a new geometry, if needed. There is a way to get it done in Sketch environment as well, but it is far form being a straight forward one.

Let's stop here, because we are hijacking the original post.  Should that topic be of interest to many - let's start a new post all together.

Cheers,

Igor.

Web: www.meqc.com.au
Message 17 of 17
ernis
in reply to: IgorMir

I don't see any problems with parameter names. I assign parameter names to make them easy to use. And everything else doesn’t matter to me what it’s called. Important for Inventor convenient 🙂

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