Quickly sketch a rectangle centered at origin. How to?

[graham.wideman]

I've worked with F360 for quite some time now, but this simple task seems to bedevil me constantly. How do you best use F360 Sketch features to simply create a rectangle centered at the origin?

After drawing the rectangle (which comes with H and V constraints on the sides), I just want to align the midpoints of two sides to the X and Y axes.  If I attempt to use the midpoint constraint with a side and the origin, it wants to actually place that side through the origin (unlike some demo videos I watched which don't seem to do that). 

So I then laboriously create vertical and horizontal construction line, and add constraints so they align on the X and Y axes.

Then I attempt to use the midpoint constraint to get one of the rectangle side's midpoint to coincide with the construction line... but most of the time it does something else, moving the rectangle side midpoint so that it's at the midpoint of the construction line. (Which of course is an arbitrary location on the construction line, because it's a construction line.) This happens regardless of what order I choose the two participants in the midpoint relationship.

So to avoid that, instead I add a couple of standalone points to the sketch. I then use the midpoint constraint to constrain the points to the midpoints of two sides. NOW I can use coincident constraint to get those two points to coincide with the construction lines.

So to just to get the rectangle centered at the origin, I had to add:

• (the rectangle itself, with its vertical and horizontal constrained sides)
• horizontal and vertical construction lines, with two coincident constraints to the origin
• two points, with midpoint constraints to the rectangle sides
• two coincident constraints from the points to the construction lines.

This surely can't be the right way to do this!?  I suspect my trouble is because I really can't get the &^%$# midpoint constraint to do what I want.  I can't tell whether to feel frustrated or stupid.

[dogolearn]

I want to add my up-vote or appreciation... whatever.  I also have been struggling with this seemingly simple scenario. I begin sketching and then I want to add constraints to make my stuff centered to the origin - either left-right or up-down or both. My thinking is: "this line's midpoint should always be at X=0 (or Y=0)" so I reach for the mid-point constraint tool. This will NOT get me what I want. Instead, I should use the horizonal/vertical constraint tool, hold down shift, mouse around until the midpoint appears, select it, then click the origin. This is STUPID. I did not want the midpoint of that line to be horizontal or vertical. That's nonsense.

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@dogolearn wrote:

 This is STUPID. I did not want the midpoint of that line to be horizontal or vertical. That's nonsense.

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Actually, it is simple logic.

[dogolearn]

A point cannot be horizontal or vertical

[graham.wideman]

@JamieGilchristI believe you've come to the same conclusion I did, in message 13, right?

[TheCADWhisperer]

@dogolearn 

It can be, relative to another point. Logic.

[graham.wideman]

I appreciate your affection for the solution I contributed, and agree that it is not very discoverable (which is what led to my original post). 

On the other hand, I'm not too hostile to the use of the H/V constraint because it's at least constraining the relationship between the points (say origin and rectangle-side midpoint).  You might think of an imaginary construction line between those two points, and it's that line that the H/V constraint applies to. 

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@graham.wideman wrote:

  You might think of an imaginary construction line between those two points,

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Sketch a visible construction line if imaginary concept isn't obvious enough.  I do this all the time as a visual reminder a year, month, week, heck at my age, a day down the road.

Create more construction lines now than I did back on the drawing board in the last century.