easiest way to center 2 holes between 2 lines

paul_1

i'm sure there's a trick for this.  i recently wanted to add a pair of mounting holes to a rectangular object.  to center the holes, i found myself creating one construction line between and perpendicular to the edges of the object, another between the holes, then creating midpoints for each of those lines, and finaly connecting those midpoints with a third construction line which was parallel to the object edges.  kind of a mess, really.

what's the easy way?

Fields

Assuming the holes are side by side and you want the space between the edge of the part to the edge of the hole to be equal to the holes edge to edge.

Draw 4 horizontal lines to make one long line. Connect them to the midpoints of the outside edges, then set them equal to each other. Now you have your hole centers.

Fields

Assuming the holes are side by side and you want the space between the edge of the part to the edge of the hole to be equal to the holes edge to edge.

Draw 4 horizontal lines to make one long line. Connect them to the midpoints of the outside edges, then set them equal to each other. Now you have your hole centers.

paul_1

thanks.  i hadn't thought of using multiple lines like that -- i kept trying to use one line, and adding points along it.  much easier with multiples.  i'd also forgotten about the 'equal' constraint.  in my case (where the distance between was not the same as distance from edge) i would have used just 3 segments, set the inter-hole distance on the middle segment, and set the other two equal.

definitely the right technique.

philip_thomas

As with all things CAD, there are 10 ways to do anything.
Perhaps slightly easier would be to take advantage of the built-in center point created by 'center point' rectangles.
Ok, a lot easier
(you could also sketch mirror about a vertical construction line)