2D Samples
Designing shapes requires combining commands
In drawing your parts you will encounter challenges:
- How can I make a Popsicle stick shape so the end arcs meet the straight lines perfectly?
- How can I place mounting holes equidistant from each corner of a rectangle?
- How can I place two holes evenly spaced between two other holes?
- How can I move a circle so it's tangent to two other circles?
- etc.
Those new to CAD software often try painstakingly over and over to carefully position lines with the mouse, zooming in and out to check their results. And they use other ad-hoc methods such as nudging lines by very small steps to home in on a desired position. These methods get them close to the desired result but are not exact and are time consuming.
There is a better way, one that's fast and gives perfect results, called geometric construction. Geometric construction is a technique of combining commands to solve drawing problems. For example, to draw a Popsicle stick using geometric construction you might combine the rectangle, circle, snap and intersect
commands to get a perfect result in seconds.
This section provides diagrams of many geometric construction examples.
The diagrams assume you have learned how to draw, select, move, delete,
stretch, rotate and snap basic lines.
The techniques assume snap is on and grid
is off.
