Construction Aid Circle > Radius - Object - Object (Construct Menu)

This command draws a Construction Aid circle, which has a given radius and is tangent to two given lines (or Construction Aid lines) or circles (or Construction Aid circles).

If a Construction Aid circle is to be drawn while working in isometric or dimetric views, this must be done with the command Construction Aid Ellipse > Vector - Vector because the result on the page is not circular but elliptical.

After choosing the command, a dialog appears in which the Construction Aid circle's radius can be specified.

Any partial object in an existing object can be identified as the first reference object. This can be a side of a rectangle or a circle arc within a surface. Ellipses and ellipse parts cannot be identified.

The identified (part) object is referred to as the "Reference Object".

The position at which the object is identified (the "ID point") has no effect on the rest of this command. As there are up to eight possible results, it would be to complicated to make a choice on the basis of the ID point's position.

Any partial object in an existing object can be identified as the second reference object. This can be a side of a rectangle or a circle arc within a surface. Ellipses and ellipse parts cannot be identified.

The identified (part) object is referred to as the "Reference Object".

After identifying both reference objects, all possible circles are worked out (the graphic shows one possible set of results).

The desired Construction Aid circle can then be chosen with the help of a small dialog. Only one circle can be chosen at a time.

If the distance between both objects is more than double the radius, or if two parallel lines are identified, it is not possible to calculate the Construction Aid circles. In this case, a corresponding error message appears.