Aligning vertically two points. 1

[skanskan]

Hello

Given two points on a sketch, is there any way to align (line up) them vertically without first creating a line between them and making it vertical (and converting the to reference or hiding it)?

And...
Sometimes I want to choose the midpoint of a line but I can't. It seems that only under few conditions (inside the dialog of some operations) I can do it.
Is there any way to enable the midpoint selection always?

(I know there is an option in the quick filters selection but even with that option enabled the user cannot select midpoints except for some actions.

 

[JohnRBaker]

This issue is more general than that. It's how do I align two points along any sort of direction, period? Vertical and Horizontal are just a couple of unique situations. And the answer is, you can't unless there is something to actually create a relationship between the two points with. In this case, a 'reference line'. There is nothing that either point would know about the other point that would be of any value in getting them to both lie along an explicit vector. It's the fact that both points have the same relationship with the same line that allows this to even work at all. So getting back the original question, if ALL you have are two points then you will need to create individual dimensions which would constrain the points so that they both lay on the same imaginary 'vertical line'. It's just a lot simpler to just draw a vertical line, constraint the points to be 'Point on Curve' and you're done.

As for the mid-point issue, you CAN only constrain objects which have their own vertex's, such as the endpoint of a curve or the center of an arc/ellipse, to the mid-point of a line, but you can't dimension to the mid-point nor can you constrain the mid-point of one line to be coincident with the mid-point of another line. In these situations, dimensioning to the mid-point or constraining two midpoints to each other, you will need to first constrain POINTS at the mid-point of the lines and then dimension to the point, or constrain the POINT on one line to the POINT located at the mid-point of the other line. Once you start working with the sketcher and constraint options on a regular basis, it becomes easier to 'see' and anticipate how items can be constrained with respect to each other.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
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