how to constrain to line as segment not line?

[Anonymous]

I am trying to constrain the distance between two circles. 
I did this by:

1. making two circles(A and B)
2. drawing the line(C) between them
3. drawing a second line (D) and constraining it to be coincidental with line C and circles A and B.

This is fine, but if I change the length of D by too much it snaps to the other side of circle A and B.

In the f3d file if you change the dimension constrained to 1mm to 4mm the circles get closer, not farther 

[g-andresen]

Hi,

Please share your sketch (f3d) and name the important elements and their behaviour.

günther

[jeff_strater]

@Anonymous - this looks like a solver bug.  Can you share the design here so we can investigate?

[laughingcreek · Accepted solution]

are you aware of the lines under the one connecting the centers?  there messing with you, they aren't constrained to be parallel to anything (such as horizontal or to each other.)

getting rid of those lines, then diminsioning by right selecting the dim tool, right clicking and selecting "arc tangent"

then drawing a construction line between the 2 centers

making the construction line horizontal, and constraining the center of the main circles to something so it won't move (I constrained it to the origin)

and the sketch behaves