Perpendicular to a sloping line?

alexander_potochkin

Hello

Imagine I draw a triangle and now I need to connect some lines to each side.
The lines are to be parallel and perpendicular to every side.

It is easy to draw a perpendicular line for a vertical or horizontal line,
but what is the best way to do it for a sloping line?

Should I somehow transform the triangle to make a side of it vertical
and then draw what I need for every side?

Here is a sketch that illustrates the question
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/497294dde6d7430daccb07c4/w/35ba91b8cf2c45b49165a3a1/e/fba4be4331de47d78cf99bfd
the square should be placed on the triangle's side so the bottom side of it belongs to the triangle.

Thanks!

shanshan

alexander_potochkin,I guess you did not notice the "horizontal" constraint for the top side of this square, so there is a confict when you add "perpendicular" constraint between the sloping side of this triangle and the top side of this square. we have to delete some constraints first .

jakeramsley

While you have a line tool activated, if you hover over the line you want to be perpendicular to at this point you can infer a perpendicular constraint to that line.  From here, while you are doing a polyline the next line can be inferred perpendicular as well.

alexander_potochkin

I guess I can draw all those lines ahead of time and then connect this part to the triangle using constraints.
This is possible but not very convenient. I'd like to make a particular line temporarily horizontal so I can easily use it as the base for the rest of the design.

andrew_troup

A couple of ways I can think of:

1) Draw a rectangle in empty space.
- Click on "Show constraints" and delete the horizontal constraint on the bottom side.
- Add an equal constraint between two adjacent sides to make the figure square.
- Now click on the spacebar to make sure nothing is selected, click on an endpoint of the triangle then a corner of the square and choose "coincident".
- Repeat this, from the word "- Now"

2) Draw a polygon in empty space with an inscribed circle, and set the number of sides to 4.
- Attach to the triangle, as for  rectangle 1).

shanshan

alexander_potochkin,I guess you did not notice the "horizontal" constraint for the top side of this square, so there is a confict when you add "perpendicular" constraint between the sloping side of this triangle and the top side of this square. we have to delete some constraints first .

jakeramsley

While you have a line tool activated, if you hover over the line you want to be perpendicular to at this point you can infer a perpendicular constraint to that line.  From here, while you are doing a polyline the next line can be inferred perpendicular as well.

alexander_potochkin

It is clear now. Thanks a lot!