Non-Coplanar 'Tangents'

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Daniel Piker on March 10, 2014 at 9:49am

Is this what you are after?

(Transform>Affine>Project)

Permalink Reply by Paul Jester on March 10, 2014 at 10:01am

Thanks for the feedback!  This is not quite, I want the line to go between the two circles.  Not a projected one.

In the image below, the purple line I drew in shows what I am trying to do.  The circles have a height difference of 10 units.  

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 10, 2014 at 10:02am

You can take the end-points of the line and project them back onto the circle to create new lines that start and end at each circle. There will no longer be actual tangents of course.

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David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 10, 2014 at 10:10am

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 10, 2014 at 10:14am

Or, slightly simpler:

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 10, 2014 at 10:19am

sigh.... this isn't my day. Simpler still:

Permalink Reply by Paul Jester on March 10, 2014 at 10:26am

David, this is great, thank you so much!!  This is extremely helpful!!

Permalink Reply by Vicente Soler on March 10, 2014 at 10:56am

Now more complicated:

Permalink Reply by taz on March 10, 2014 at 2:08pm

You're a master arborist! Vicente FTW.

Permalink Reply by Paul Jester on March 10, 2014 at 1:31pm

David,

Thanks again for your help!  Perhaps you can help me with my next step, I am struggling.

Is there a way to trim/shatter the circles based on those tangent points?

I would like to remove the section highlighted in purple, any ideas?  Thanks for all your help!!