Locating Details

Keith Krueger

Member
Messages
53
I am new to SU and one thing that I have struggled with is placing details. For example I'll draw a wood part (I found an use the Box plugin) on the origin and then make this a component. Now if I want to add say a hole at some position on the face I first use the tape tool to draw construction lines one parallel to the bottom edge at a distance I type in the second line is parallel to one end at a specified distance. Now I am ready to add the circle at the intersection of the 2 lines. Not difficult but seems to be a lot of steps. Am I missing an easier way?

By the way I change my copy of Box so it asks for length, width, and thickness which is more natural for wood working. Also I found that I could enter 3/4 and get 0.750 thickness.
 
Keith, I use your method of locating details pretty much as you have described. Guides (formerly Construction lines) are pretty quick and easy to use. I have set up E as a shorcut for Edite/Delete Guides because drawings can get cluttered with a lot of guides drawn.

Good on you to use the Box script. I generally don't bother because it is fast enough for me to use Push/Pull. The cool thing is there is more than one way to handle things like this.
 
You could set a Guide (Construction) point by entering the point's relative coordinates from a corner. Select the Tape measure tool, click on the reference corner and drag in the general direction of the points final location. Type the relative coordinates as <x,y,z>, Enter. This would get you the point for the center of the hole with a single action from the Tape Measure tool. I find it quicker to drag a second guide line because I don't have to let go of the mouse for it.
 
Dave I tried the tape tool and entering the coordinates it seems to only take one entry the length of the diagional. I'll stick with the guide lines as I understand that method and it goes back to my drawing board days I used that method with the drafting machine.
 
Keith, did you use the < and > to enter the coordinates? Those symbols tell SU that you are entering a coordinate relative to the point you click on with the Tape Measure tool. If you enclosed the coordinates in square brackets [ ]you get absolute coordinates.

I do think just drawing the guides is quicker.
 
Top