From: Michael’s Corner #70
Originally published: October 2008
Snap to Perpendicular
My most common application for using the Snap to Perpendicular feature is when I'm creating polylines on a floorplan for area calculations. Areas for Accounting, Admin, Reception – things like that. Or perhaps you're indicating the area for Phase I or Phase II. In these situations, you won't always have places like Endpoints or Midpoints to snap to, but it would be handy to snap to the point that's perpendicular to a specific wall.
To refine the application further, Snap to Perpendicular is particularly helpful in a floorplan that is not made up of perfectly orthogonal walls or surfaces. In those situations, Object Snap Tracking (Otrack) would be an alternative (see Basics, September 2007).
Memo: My recommendation would be to use Snap to Perpendicular only when needed. In other words, I would not set it as a permanent Osnap setting. To that end, there are two ways you may want to consider when accessing the Perpendicular snap.
One way may be to dock the Object Snap toolbar (shown above) somewhere around the edge of your drawing window. Object snaps used from that toolbar are good for one hit only. The other option would be to hold down Shift (or Ctrl), then right-click. By default, this mouse/key combination will always display the shortcut list of Object snaps.
In the first figure, Snap to Perpendicular has been initiated and the cursor is placed close to the line whose extended vector would intersect the target line. Once the vector of the line has been acquired, a Perpendicular tool tip appears on the target line at the point where the vector of the acquired line would intersect the target line at a 90 degree angle. When you see the Perpendicular tool tip, click your cursor to place the point.
The second figure indicates the placement of the point of the polyline at the location of the Perpendicular tooltip, and at this point (so to speak), you can continue placing points of the polyline.
Note: Snap to Perpendicular is helpful when using the Move or Copy command, too.
See all the articles published in October 2008
See this article in the October 2008 Corner
Donate to CADTutor
If you found this article useful, you might like to consider making a donation. All content on this site is provided free of charge and we hope to keep it that way. However, running a site like CADTutor does cost money and you can help to improve the service and to guarantee its future by donating a small amount. We guess that you probably wouldn't miss $5.00 but it would make all the difference to us.
Note from Michael: I want to thank all of my customers for continuing to retain my training services (some for over two decades!) and let you know your donations do not go to me personally, but to the ongoing maintenance of the CADTutor ship as a whole and to support the yeoman efforts of my friend and CADTutor captain, David Watson, to whom I am grateful for this monthly opportunity to share a few AutoCAD insights.
Local Navigation
Sponsored Links
