Draft Constrain

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This documentation is a work in progress. Please don't mark it as translatable since it will change in the next hours and days.

Description

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

Constraining is available with most Draft and Arch commands.

While the cursor is constrained the task panel locks the values that are not being modified

Usage horizontal and vertical constraints

  1. Choose a Draft or Arch command to create your geometry.
  2. Pick a first point. A previous point is required.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • For a horizontal constraint: move the cursor to the left or right of the previous point.
    • For a vertical constraint: move the cursor above or below the previous point.
  4. Hold down Shift.
  5. The cursor is now constrained.
  6. Pick the next point.
  7. If the command is still active: optionally release Shift to disable the constraint.

Usage X, Y and Z constraints

  1. Choose a Draft or Arch command to create your geometry.
  2. Pick a first point. A previous point is required.
  3. Press X, Y or Z to specify the direction.
  4. The cursor is now constrained.
  5. Pick the next point.
  6. If the command is still active optionally do one of the following:
    • Press the same key to disable the constraint.
    • Press the key belonging to one of the other directions to use that direction instead.

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 restrict the operation to a certain segment.