Here's an example of finding a point on a squiggly curve that will be going perpendicular to the y axis direction using perp/perp snap:
To do it with this method, first put in a line or construction line going in x-axis direction. Then place the first point of the line somewhere in the general area where the perpendicular point is at, then when you place the second point onto the x-axis line, move your mouse around until you find the perp/perp point, it will usually be a slight distance to one side of the single perp snap. Once that is located you will see a "Perp/Perp" label shown on both the first and the current point of the line (not just only on the current point like regular "perp" object snap) - this is a special snap that not only modifies the current point but also modifies the previous point as well, that's why the labels are shown on both the base and the target point for this one. Because it modifies the previous pick and not just only the current point it's only enabled for some particular commands that are like line drawing, like the line, polyline commands and when drawing (not relocating) construction lines too, but since you can generate construction lines in any drawing command you can use them to get it when needed in other commands.
The other way is if you use the BoundingBox command you will get a frame around the curve and it should then have intersection snap points at these locations as well.
In the future I'd like to add some way to make individual snap points show up at these locations, but it takes some calculation to figure these out on squiggly curves and it's not always so good to have too many snap points all going at the same time since it can get in the way of more freely placing points. So maybe it would be something that you would go into an extended properties dialog to turn on or off those snap points on a particular curve maybe. But in the meantime one of these other methods can get you those particular points as well.
I hope that I didn't misunderstand what you are looking for...
- Michael |
