I just finished a little personal project that required me to miter a 2 x 4 along a 45-degree angle so that it’s flush with the adjoining pieces. I figured out how to do it one way, but it seems unnecessarily convoluted:
Draw rectangle
Rotate rectangle
Push/Pull it into a 2x4
Extend the long edges at the top to the face and join.
Delete unnecessary lines.
Extend the long edges at the bottom to the plane and join. (Yes, I forgot to draw that last bottom edge!)
Delete the unnecessary lines.
Is there way to snap the lower short edge to the plane when I push/pull it downward?
Then, is there a way to move the upper short edge and force it along the 45-degree angle and snap it to the upright face?
I would group the geometry after Step 3. Then open the group and use Push/Pull to run the edges past the vertical and horizontal pieces. Then draw a line where they meet each piece, and use Push/Pull to get rid of the extra geometry. This would save you a dozen or so clicks.
No guideline is needed. Select the short top edge. Select the Move tool. Move the cursor on the long top edge. When the “On edge” tooltip appears, press and hold down Shift. Click on endpont of short edge. Click on vertical surface. Release Shift.
I’m a little late to the party, but here’s another option.(similar to Box’s) I like to draw pieces in place rather than rotating them.
Using the protractor to set desired angle, then tape measure to set the width, no orbiting required just a little zoom…
As a ‘builder’ I am familiar with @TheOnlyAaron 's method (You grab a 2"4", hold it against the Post and draw a line, go to miter saw and cut it!) I think the fastest way in getting things done is the way that suits you
If you
and start grouping, you’ll get these bounding boxes which do not align with the axes
It took my several hours, literally, to draw it the first time, because I was re-learning SU after not having used it for several years, and I’d forgotten about groups, components, and arrays, so the whole drawing was just a mishmash of individual edges and faces.
After relearning those 3 key concepts I was able to repro the same drawing in about 15 minutes.
With these miter methods I could probably do it in 10.
Y’all could probably do it in 5.
Ready, Set, Go!
p.s. it took me even longer to build, because I’m daft. I cut all the diagonal pieces exactly 2’ long, at 90 degrees, and then cut the miters. All by hand.
p.p.s. I’m a stickler for exact dimensions, even when they don’t matter at all. The center 4x4 post is 6’ tall; the bottom legs are 4’ long; the upper box has a 1’ clear “diameter” around the center post (hence the odd length); all the diagonals are 1’ from the inner horizontal and vertical edges they support. This makes the longer edge of the diagonals 1.9975’, or close enough that SU displays their lengths as 2’, even though that’s an output dimension and not an input dimension.
Click and hold while dragging is one way to set the axis of rotation. Especially useful when the axis of rotation is not parallel to one of the axes in the model.
