2017 Perpendicular Inference

SketchUp
1

I have a really dumb question relative to the new perpendicular inference in2017. I have a face that is on an angle and I want to draw a circle that is parallel to the face. With the new perpendicular inference, it is really neat and easy to draw a line that is perpendicular to the face but I cannot then use that line to orient a circle (or other object) that is parallel to the original face. Hoping this make sense so someone can enlighten me with an example or tutorial.

The only way I have figured out how to use the new inference so far is to dray a line that is perpendicular to an object. I would hope that it can be used for more than that. :smiley:

2

Activate the circle tool, move the cursor onto the face until you see the inference ā€œon faceā€. Then press the down arrow key until you see the face and circle cursor highlight in magenta. Then move the cursor away from the face, click to set a center point, and drag then click to set a radius:

1 Like
3

Perfect - exactly what I wanted.

Thanks for the video. :yum:

So did I miss somewhere that the down arrow key give me this new inference?

4

The ā€˜get down key*ā€™ parallel/perpendicular* inference was added in SketchUp 2016, so itā€™s a relatively new one that we didnā€™t explicitly call out again for SketchUp 2017.

*Not a technical term, but my preferred nomenclature!

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5

Thanks Mark - somehow I missed this along the way. I need to play with it more to learn how to take advantage of it better. I use the other three keys a lot.

6

OK - for some reason, I am struggling controlling this like I need to. I need to do something like this but I need to make sure the circle I draw is perpendicular to the surface, centered on the rectangle, and a set distance from it as well. I am using 2018 Pro so if there are additional inferences I can use, I would appreciate telling what they are. :blush:

7

Though you can draw a rectangle from center, once drawn, there is no ā€˜centerpointā€™ inference in the rectangle, so you would have to infer (hoover) on the midpoint of two edges.
One way is to double- click with the Tape-measurement tool active on the surface and then move the guideline to the centre

8

If you make the box a group you can draw the circle anywhere on that box without them merging and then use move tool.

9

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. So far, the most successful method I have found is:

  • Go to the face of the rectangle

  • Select the circle tool

  • Use referencing with the circle tool to locate the center of the rectangle & circle

  • Draw the circle on the rectangle face to the desired radius

  • Click on the face of the circle and Push/Pull it the distance I want from the face

  • Select the face of the cylinder that was created with the Push/Pull operation and delete it

  • Go back to the rectangle face and delete the circle which means I now have the desired circle face perpendicular to and centered on the rectangle face.

  • Lastly I can now use the Curviloft tool to make a smooth transition from the rectangle to the circle in the proper context.

BW: In this tool, how do you add items to a bullet list without double spacing between list items?