joining two parallel lines with a double-tangent arc

[Shan-d-man]

My goal is to plan a pex pipe layout on a floor and the pex spec is to not have a radius less than 5".  I need to go around an object and am struggling with defining the arcs required between two parallel lines.  I was thinking it was just a pair of tangent arcs that are each tangent to one of the reference lines and then tangent to each other.  This seems to render properly, but now I need to be able to anchor the tangent end point of each line to the actual arc starts.  I was hoping I could just select the small leftover chunks and trim them, to force the end of each line to where the arcs start, but that doesn't seem to be working.

Notice how both of these horizontal lines now extend past the curve.  How can I fix these endpoints up while maintaining the nice double-arc swerve with the 5" radius?

[laughingcreek]

the end points of each arc and line have to have a  coincident constraint in addition to being made tangent.

if that's not it can you post a sketch demonstrating your issue? 

[evanp4509U4JZ]

Try extending the arcs. The white dots are the clue. I often run into instances where the tangency constraint makes the lines tangent but I have dimension constrained the center or end of an arc and it just comes up a micron or two short of touching the line it is tangent to.

[Drewpan]

Hi,

Right now your tangent arcs are tangent to each other and tangent to the lines

but since they are blue I would suggest that the missing constraint will be that

the curves can slide along both of the parallel lines and still meet the constraints

that you do have. That is what you need to lock down.

Simply define the distance from the Origin of one of the tangent ends and it should work.

Bingo - fully constrained.

Cheers

Andrew

Cheers

Andrew