# Moving circle along tangent lines

**URL:** <https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108>\
**Category:** Modeling Questions\
**Created:** [November 28, 2023, 4:23am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108 "2023-11-28T04:23:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 15\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jcclow](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/jcclow/32/23888_2.png) [@jcclow](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/jcclow)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2023, 4:23am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108/1 "2023-11-28T04:23:31Z")

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Why can’t I move the inner circle along the angled axis that it is tangent to?  
[https://youtu.be/fQ4RkFWG0zo?si=RaNTZdR3yfF3ZxsQ](https://youtu.be/fQ4RkFWG0zo?si=RaNTZdR3yfF3ZxsQ)

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**Author:** ![TigerMike](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/tigermike/32/32650_2.png) [@TigerMike](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/TigerMike)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2023, 5:35am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108/2 "2023-11-28T05:35:51Z")

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I’ll guess that the center of your circle is locked, otherwise it does work.

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**Author:** ![jcclow](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/jcclow/32/23888_2.png) [@jcclow](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/jcclow)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2023, 4:02pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108/3 "2023-11-28T16:02:49Z")

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Definitely not locked and your way worked, but that is completely unintuitive. How would an average person know to move the center point of the object you’re trying to move to the stationary object that it’s aligned to.

I don’t understand why the handles of the selected object can’t be rotated to align with the tangent object or why you can’t just grab the object that is perfectly constrained and move it within those constraints.

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**Author:** ![Guzzi\_Treiber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7bcc69/32.png) [@Guzzi\_Treiber](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Guzzi_Treiber)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2023, 4:42pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108/4 "2023-11-28T16:42:48Z")

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do not use the Move/Rotate Tool. Select the circle and select the midpoint, and you can move the circle.

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**Author:** ![jcclow](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/jcclow/32/23888_2.png) [@jcclow](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/jcclow)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2023, 5:03pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108/5 "2023-11-28T17:03:07Z")

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Wow…great first post! Thanks, it worked perfectly.

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**Author:** ![Peter\_Gy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/peter_gy/32/9251_2.png) [@Peter\_Gy](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Peter_Gy)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 9:55am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108/6 "2023-11-29T09:55:34Z")

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Thanks for solving this, @Guzzi_Treiber!

However, it’s indeed not logical that the sketch adapts dynamically with respect to the configured constraints if you just use quick dragging and it does not when you use the Move/Rotate tool. There are some under-the-hood technical reasons for this right now, but we’ll look into it soon.

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**Author:** ![jcclow](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/jcclow/32/23888_2.png) [@jcclow](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/jcclow)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 9:04pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108/7 "2023-11-29T21:04:11Z")

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Hey Peter…thanks for the reply. I’ve watched almost all of the Shapr3D videos on YouTube and didn’t see anything like TigerMike’s solution and my first instinct when I want to move something is the move tool, so I never even thought to just grab the object and move it.

It would be really cool if the handles in the move rotate command could update based on the constraints though.

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**Author:** ![TigerMike](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/tigermike/32/32650_2.png) [@TigerMike](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/TigerMike)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 11:55pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108/8 "2023-11-29T23:55:05Z")

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Moving a circle sketch by it’s center is fine however it cannot be moved by a specific amount. Use the **Move-Rotate** tool to move it an exact amount.

It’s my understanding that regardless of sketch or body orientation, the **Move-Rotate** tool always starts its position for a true X-Y-Z movement. It’s up to you to move the tool gadget to line up for a different orientation to move your object to a desired position like what I did at 14 secs into my video above.

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**Author:** ![Peter\_Gy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/peter_gy/32/9251_2.png) [@Peter\_Gy](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Peter_Gy)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 8:14am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108/9 "2023-11-30T08:14:25Z")

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You are right absolutely about that, that’s one of the advantages of the Move/Rotate tool here. But that’s also why it’s a bit of an issue that in that case we practically refuse to move constrained sketch items, whereas when you simply drag the geometry, we try to solve the constraint set for the new position of the item and if it’s possible, we allow the movement. It would be a perfectly valid use case to want to move a sketch item precisely (locked to an axis, to a set distance, around a set pivot point etc.) and still have the rest of the sketch adapt to it while honoring all constraints. We’ll work on this soon.

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**Author:** ![jcclow](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/jcclow/32/23888_2.png) [@jcclow](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/jcclow)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 1:19pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108/10 "2023-11-30T13:19:39Z")

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Having now played with both methods, Mike brings up a great point in that your “guessing” the location when dragging the object, while moving the handle to a stationary, parallel object (in this case) allows the move tool to work in the expected way.

@Peter, maybe in the interim the help file for the Move-Rotate tool could be updated with a “Power User Tip” that points out Mike’s suggestion.

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**Author:** ![Peter\_Gy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/peter_gy/32/9251_2.png) [@Peter\_Gy](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Peter_Gy)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 4:15pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108/11 "2023-11-30T16:15:11Z")

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> [@jcclow](#):
>
> @Peter, maybe in the interim the help file for the Move-Rotate tool could be updated with a “Power User Tip” that points out Mike’s suggestion.

That’s actually a great idea, I’ll relay it to the documentation team!

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**Author:** ![Bob3DPO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7993a0/32.png) [@Bob3DPO](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Bob3DPO)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2023, 12:31am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108/12 "2023-12-01T00:31:58Z")

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Hi Peter,

I think @TigerMike has made **many great videos**. He is a champion in the community. His videos are **excellent** —short, to the point and present understandable solutions. I’m sure his 30 second videos take much longer than that to produce. With all due respect, I suggest your documentation team reach out to Mike and see if he would be willing to be on contract to Shapr3d. He has a knack to hit the nail on the head. As Shapr3d grows there will are many people who will need and appreciate his special kind of tutelage.

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**Author:** ![jcclow](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/jcclow/32/23888_2.png) [@jcclow](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/jcclow)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2023, 1:14am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108/13 "2023-12-01T01:14:48Z")

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Coming from a guy that has also provided numerous helpful posts and replies…that’s a pretty big compliment

Both of you deserve to be added to the “Annals of Shapr3D Helpful Posts Fame”.

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**Author:** ![Peter\_Gy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/peter_gy/32/9251_2.png) [@Peter\_Gy](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Peter_Gy)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2023, 7:19am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108/14 "2023-12-01T07:19:34Z")

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We are beyond grateful for the contribution of all of you in these forums and we love our champions like @TigerMike. We plan to reorganize it a bit in 2024 as we catch our breath after the full parametric rollout and we will definitely investigate how could we incorporate your help even better/more.

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**Author:** ![Edwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/73ab20/32.png) [@Edwin](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Edwin)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2023, 11:50am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/moving-circle-along-tangent-lines/29108/15 "2023-12-01T11:50:39Z")

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Please make more tutorials 😀 👍