Rhino, Direction Constrain with Elevation

Does anyone know how to move objects when direction (TAB key) is set by referencing height of other objects. Now by default Rhino uses only perpendicular direction.

Terribly sorry for posting question about Rhino here, but I hoped to get help here sooner than the offical forum.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 4, 2017 at 12:13pm

I don't quite understand what "is set by referencing height" means.

You can lock the current direction of a point pick by pressing TAB, you can set the direction to orthogonal angles by pressing SHIFT and you can set the direction perpendicular to the local CPlane by holding CONTROL.

Permalink Reply by Daniel on March 4, 2017 at 12:16pm

Thank you David for the reply and sorry for this vague description. What I meant was both locking it to the current direction and then setting direction perpendicular to the local CPlane.

Do you know if it is something possible to do in Rhino?

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 4, 2017 at 12:37pm

How can you constrain to two different directions?

Permalink Reply by Daniel on March 4, 2017 at 12:42pm

Exactly, so by default at the moment it constrains to perpendicular, but I need to move something to the same elevation. Please see the pictures:

Permalink Reply by Daniel on March 4, 2017 at 1:03pm

One thing I just found out is perpendicularFrom command, which can do it. It would be however helpful to know anything better than that.

Permalink Reply by Daniel on March 4, 2017 at 1:25pm

EDIT: PerpFrom doesn't work after all.

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 5, 2017 at 1:57am

Hmm, I would have expected the Int object snap to work once the direction is constrained, but it doesn't. At least it doesn't in perspective. It works in side views where you can 'apparent' intersect with the edges, but that doesn't work with curved or tilted surfaces.

The 'onsurface' constraint resets the TAB constraint, so that's no help either.

I'm afraid I don't know the answer, and if there is one you may have to go to discourse to find it.

Permalink Reply by Daniel on March 5, 2017 at 3:38am

Thank you David, it does work when viewport is either 'front' or 'right'. It is good enough for me, while switching between viewports is fast. It requires SmartTrack turned on.

I am wondering however why you said that it doesn't work with curved or tilted surfaces?

Permalink Reply by Daniel on March 4, 2017 at 12:17pm

Perhaps with SmartTrack options?

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