Draft Constrain

From FreeCAD Documentation
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Description

Apart from entering coordinates in the task panel of commands or using snapping, there is another feature available in the Draft Workbench and the Arch Workbench to help you draw accurately. After picking a point you can constrain the movement of the cursor to the X, Y, or Z direction of the current Draft working plane for the next point. This can for example be used to create a perfectly horizontal line.

While constraining the movement of the cursor the task panel will lock the coordinate values that are not being modified

Usage horizontal constraint

  1. Choose a Draft or Arch command to create your geometry.
  2. Pick a first point. A previous point is required.
  3. Move the cursor to the left or right of the previous point.
  4. Hold down Shift.
  5. The cursor is now constrained horizontally.
  6. Pick a next point.
  7. Optionally release Shift to disable the constraint.

Usage vertical constraint

  1. Choose a Draft or Arch command to create your geometry.
  2. Pick a first point. A previous point is required.
  3. Move the pointer above or below the previous point.
  4. Hold down Shift.
  5. The cursor is now constrained vertically.
  6. Pick a next point.
  7. Optionally release Shift to disable the constraint.

X, Y, Z constraints

Press one of the X, Y or Z keys after a point to constrain the next point on the specified X, Y, or Z direction. Press the same key again to release the constraint.

Pressing X or Y is equivalent to holding Shift and constraining horizontally or vertically, respectively.

Notes

  • Constraining can be combined with snapping.
  • The Draft Offset command and Draft Trimex command use the Shift key for a different type of constraining, namely to constrain the operation to a certain segment.