Parallel lines/segments.

[jsiggia]

Hello,

How are most people creating parallel lines? I'm having trouble controlling the direction of offset when I draw a segment on the XZ plane and need a parallel segment on the same plane.

 

Thanks,

Joe

[Justin Montoya]

Can you share a screenshot so we can better understand?  You can just Copy/Paste them into the forum text here.

Edited October 26 by Justin Montoya

[jsiggia]

Thanks for responding Justin,

The segment on the grid in the XZ plane was clicked on after activating the offset segment tool. instead of draging a parallel segment away from the original on the same plane, the new segment is draged along the Y axis.   Thanks, Joe

[jsiggia]

Added some details to help this along.  Thanks.

[Justin Montoya]

Hello,

Let me start by saying that I primarily work with 3D objects so my usage perspective may be a bit skewed here.   

That said, I would not be creating plain lines in a Perspective view, but rather I would use Plan/Top view or a side elevation when drawing a plain line.  Then it is simple to just use the Move tool with the Copy option to create a parallel line.  

That's just my preference as I am usually jumping between the various views using the CTRL+6, or CTRL+7, etc shortcuts. 

You can of course create parallel lines in Perspective mode, but doing so you should be moving the line Copy in Parallel or Perpendicularly from the Reference Plane using that option in the Move Tool options.  Here I'm showing you an example with the Perpendicular to Ref Plane option.

 

I may be wrong, but I think the Reshape tools are meant for 3D objects, including the Reshape>Offset Segment tool you were trying to use.  I'll use that tool if I want to Offset a segment on the face of a wall for say, creating a new wall to Pull out of the object.  That's how I typically use the Offset Segment tool, but curious if anyone else uses it differently?  FormZ certainly has a lot of flexibility to do things different ways.

 

Hope this helps.

[jsiggia]

Thanks Justin,

When the parallel line tool was deleted (back in the day), I recall that the segment tool was the one to use in addition to its original intent. 

the Move tool with the Copy option has been my "go to", I occasionally use the 3-point rectangle tool as well.

Thanks for taking the time to respond with this detail, Justin.

I hope to be on the forum more often as more time is allowing some modeling time.

Joe

[R2D2]

Hi Joe,

another way to get the segment offset w same length (and adustable) is to use the 2D Wall tool. (if your single segment is in XY/YZ/XZ Planes)

But as justin said it looks more like a 2D operation, where you use this as a guide; or just want to snap the points ?

(so if you really only want the second line here, you`d have to delete the short segments)

 

(The offset Line functionality would be best under the Line edit menu I guess, or added to the "Offset segment", as an option...)

 

Edited October 29 by R2D2

[Jim_G]

Good input here from everyone!  I'd just like to add that R2D2's approach (using 2D Wall and deleting the unused segments) is the one I've used for the last 20+ years.

[ZTEK]

The Extrusion tool also works and is dynamic and parametric until further editing. Of its two options, using Perpendicular To Surface is more flexible.