Align Tool and other aligns

Need help? We are here.
#1

I like the new Align tool a lot. As I understand it the first body selected “moves” toward the second select body, very clear and intuitive behaviour… so why don’t extend it toward other “aligns”??

For example, concentric constrain: the first circle you select goes concentric to the second selected circle. As the concentric constrain works now I can’t find a similar straightforward logic…

There are probabily others tools/constrains where first/second selections would benefit, the concentric one was the first to come to my mind.

#2

That’s a great observation, and thanks for the feedback. It should work like that. The problem is that it’s a little bit out of our control, because for constraint solving we are using the industry standard d-cubed component (the same component that Solidworks is using for example, https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/global/en/products/plm-components/d-cubed.html) and often we have little control over what happens when resolving new constraints. But this is definitely a great catch, and we will look into this.

2 Likes
#3

Thank you for your answer, clearly we all share the concept that the user experience is the center core of adopting a tool, either physical or software. In this regard it is “weird” (I don’t have a better word for that) that the d-cubed component forces a constrain regardless of the user experience: as it appears, it solves the constrains from a purely mathematically point of view, without offering a “contact point” to twich the interface.

I followed the link you indicated, quite interesting in itself, there is a small paragraph at the end of the “2D Geometric Constraint Solver” section (https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/global/en/products/plm-components/2d-dcm.html) that says: " Solving options and diagnostics: Preferred solving outcomes can be specified, such as minimal movement of geometry."

If I broaden the meaning of it, there could be some kind of way out…?!

I love the program, mind you, keep up the excellent work! :slight_smile:

1 Like
#4

Yes, I think we can do something to improve it, it’s just that the outcome will be not always what you would expect, but we can significantly improve it.

1 Like