I might have a mental issue here, but I am constantly annoyed by the arc->cont function. Often the arc opens up in the wrong direction. Not the direction I'd like it to span. Is there a way to affect the orientation while attempting to draw the circle? Like pressing ctrl to have it flip it's direction? I use it often, and most of the time together with some 4 letter words...
Cheers
Rainer

yes annoying !
So use Arc 3 points ;)

Hi Rainer, could you please post a model or picture of the kind of thing you are having trouble with?

Especially if you snap the first point of the arc on to the end of an existing curve, it should be pretty straightforward - the arc should always be created to be tangent with the end of the curve in that case.

That's pretty much the situation that Arc Continue was meant to be used for - to continue the end of an existing curve with a tangent arc.


On the other hand, if you have snapped the first point of the arc to some point internal to a curve instead of at the very end of a curve, you can still make an arc that way with arc continue, but the arc will change direction to point towards the final point you pick, it's pretty much intended only to make an arc of less than 180 degrees for this particular case.

Are you trying to make an arc of greater than 180 degrees, while at the same time snapping on to some internal point of a curve rather than the endpoint? If so then yes that could be possibly frustrating - for that case you may want to use Arc from center point instead, like this:



- Michael

I believe that is this sort of figure when center is not known for N°2
It's for that I suggest arc 3pts Start/End/ On ;)

Hi Pilou, yes you're right - arc 3pts would be good for that kind of a situation.

You would actually want to especially avoid "Arc Continue" for the one you show there, since Arc Continue is meant to make an arc that comes tangent off of an existing curve... For what you show there, the arcs do not appear to be tangent to one another.

- Michael

Here's the image and the file. Just delete the exagurated large circle and try and wrestle a 'cont' arc into place. It will switch up and down but not left/right... A three point is not an option as you would have to eye ball the tangent.... possible but then I can draw stuff quicker with a template on paper, scan and vectorize ;).
Rainer

Hi Rainer, that will happen because once ArcContinue finds an "end" snap among the initial points that were picked, the arc will become locked to be tangent to that end.

The end in question for your case here is the end of this curve I have highlighted:



If you want to use arc continue but not have it lock on to be tangent to that highlighted curve there, you're going to need to hide that curve so you don't snap on to its end point when drawing the arc.

If you want the arc to start at that exact point, you can put a Point object marker on it first before you hide the curve - to do that go to Draw curve / More / Point.


Also you can use Arc from center point to create the arc you want here - just pull off a construction line (hold down and drag to pull a construction line out rather than a normal click and release) perpendicular from that point and place the center point on that perpendicular, like this:



- Michael

Excellent! Thanks. Now it makes sense. The end of the other curve...... duhhhhh... Should have smelled that....
R

Cool for French Guimard style ;)

I am having this issue as well, and the solution is easy enough. However, it would be nice if there was a way to press tab and cycle through the overlapping end points until you come to the one that continues the arc you need.

Thanks

Hi yakas - tab is already used for putting the keyboard focus into the XYZ control, but maybe it could be repurposed for a special case like this.

Or maybe another possibility would be to make it pay attention to selection and if there is one curve that is selected it could lock on to that particular curve when there are multiple choices...

- Michael