How do I center a rectangle on the origin?

[GrayWolfRedRocks]

First of all, I am aware there is a 'Center Rectangle' option. That is not the purpose of this exercise. I'm interested in manual construction as my use case will not always be a rectangle.

I created a rectangle and added dimensions to the length and width. I also added construction lines from midpoint to midpoint of opposite sides to locate the centroid of the rectangle. The centroid is the point I want to be located at the origin.

How do I move the sketch such that the centroid (intersection of construction lines) is located at the origin AND constrain the dimensions so that any change to a dimension will be applied equally to each side of the origin? For example, a 6-inch width should be 3 inches on the left side of the origin and 3 inches on the right.

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

there are a number of ways to do this, depending on the geometry.  In the case of a regular polygon, you can use the Midpoint constraint (select the origin, and one of the lines).  For a more general case, I would add a point at the intersection between the two lines, then use Coincident to make that coincident with the origin point.

[HughesTooling]

Here's another way without the need for any construction lines. Use the Horizontal\Vertical constraint between the origin and the midpoints of 2 edges of the rectangle.

Mark

[HughesTooling]

Here's another trick that allows you to constrain the rectangle and be able to trim its lines without breaking the centre point constraint. Basically you draw your construction lines away from the midpoints of the rectangle then add a midpoint constraint between the 2 construction lines.

Mark