# Newbie question: find midpoint of a line

**URL:** <https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/newbie-question-find-midpoint-of-a-line/3458>\
**Category:** Modeling Questions\
**Created:** [December 11, 2018, 3:54am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/newbie-question-find-midpoint-of-a-line/3458 "2018-12-11T03:54:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Larry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@Larry](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Larry)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2018, 3:54am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/newbie-question-find-midpoint-of-a-line/3458/1 "2018-12-11T03:54:51Z")

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I’m trying to find the midpoint of a line…

I tried searching in the forum for ‘find midpoint of a line’, ‘find midpoint’ and ‘midpoint’ but it did not seem to bring back anything useful.

The line is part of an object, if that makes a difference.

Thanks for your help!

Ps. Also, how can I line up a bunch of objects to the same line? I have tried Turning on ‘snap to grid’ and when I move/translate my objects it _literally_ does NOT snap to the grid lines! This seems like a problem

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**Author:** ![hamedtopic](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/hamedtopic/32/3371_2.png) [@hamedtopic](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/hamedtopic)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2018, 6:03am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/newbie-question-find-midpoint-of-a-line/3458/2 "2018-12-11T06:03:03Z")

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See the screenshots below; be sure you turn the “show midpoint” button on.  
 ![image](https://cdck-file-uploads-us1.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/2X/7/741a6f557c0e53d579bc5ff2d1422743487ddf4e.jpeg) ![image](https://cdck-file-uploads-us1.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/2X/9/926a795d35d6124513a300a99aaef8f263f11668.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![mk1978](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/97f17d/32.png) [@mk1978](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/mk1978)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2018, 6:31pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/newbie-question-find-midpoint-of-a-line/3458/3 "2018-12-11T18:31:35Z")

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Do you know what is the reason why I get some center points marked but some are missing, see example below. ![center%20point](https://cdck-file-uploads-us1.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/2X/5/51234935339e8688872c21e44e74053b2698fe1c.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![Larry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@Larry](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Larry)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 1:47am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/newbie-question-find-midpoint-of-a-line/3458/5 "2018-12-12T01:47:17Z")

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hi hamed,

thanks for your reply. for some reason i dont see any midpoints, see attached screenshot. any idea what im doing wrong?

also, any input on the second question about aligning objects?

![PNG%20image](https://cdck-file-uploads-us1.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/2X/6/6c984d90599dd629a8f998f76feac6f543bcd92c.jpeg)

thanks again!  
larry

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**Author:** ![Larry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@Larry](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Larry)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 5:19am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/newbie-question-find-midpoint-of-a-line/3458/8 "2018-12-12T05:19:44Z")

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hi dennis,

so, am i understanding you correctly in saying that “once i have made a body from a sketch, i can’t find the midpoint of any dimension of that body without drawing another sketch line along the same dimension”.

larry

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**Author:** ![hamedtopic](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/hamedtopic/32/3371_2.png) [@hamedtopic](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/hamedtopic)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 7:37am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/newbie-question-find-midpoint-of-a-line/3458/9 "2018-12-12T07:37:30Z")

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Yes, when you create a body based on some sketches then guide points are not shown (maybe a limitation or not, don’t have any idea) but there is a simple remedy for that also. See the vid below. Btw, in your screenshot two edges were selected not one.  
Good luck to you Larry

[https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/2X/6/6cd1630419c831de7186e79f692c7c8a3f5a0015.MOV](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/2X/6/6cd1630419c831de7186e79f692c7c8a3f5a0015.MOV)

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**Author:** ![Larry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@Larry](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Larry)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 5:32pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/newbie-question-find-midpoint-of-a-line/3458/10 "2018-12-12T17:32:45Z")

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thanks hamed. sadly, i don’t think the video provides a remedy for this as the objects do not have their originating sketch near them.

what i am trying to do is create a room. first task is to create the framing, so i’m starting by creating joists. creating joists.

- i create a sketch with a 1.5" x 96" rectangle. i do this around the origin.

- i pull this sketch to create my first joist.

- i move it into position.

- i copy/translate this joist to create the rest of them.

so, at this point i have a bunch of objects, no where near the original sketch. now i want to connect the midpoints of all these joists… … surely there must be a way to do this!(?)

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**Author:** ![Larry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@Larry](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Larry)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/newbie-question-find-midpoint-of-a-line/3458/13 "2018-12-12T18:20:18Z")

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i’m new to shapr3d so i’m using the room example as a way to learn how to do things.

my expected end result is that i know how to make stuff in shapr3d, not building a specific model.

i did indeed make the framing members as you describe, and now i want to be able to find the midpoint of them - how can i do this? also, how do i align the studs/joist objects precisely - i want them snapped to an exact line. i have not been able to do this as if you align by eye when you zoom in they are not exactly the same.

shapr3d looks like a really nice tool - i should be able to do these two basic things: find midpoint of an object and align multiple objects to specific line.

thanks for your help, i really appreciate you guys explaining some of these basic things.

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**Author:** ![hamedtopic](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/hamedtopic/32/3371_2.png) [@hamedtopic](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/hamedtopic)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 6:43pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/newbie-question-find-midpoint-of-a-line/3458/15 "2018-12-12T18:43:26Z")

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Shapr3D has many useful tutorials on this so I hope you watched them already! But as far as I can give a solution, the basic of that field of engineering tells us that you should have a plan of the room, then in that case you know the number and location of your joists as a 2D sketch before creating any 3D object and your problem will be solved.

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**Author:** ![Larry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@Larry](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Larry)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 7:15pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/newbie-question-find-midpoint-of-a-line/3458/16 "2018-12-12T19:15:05Z")

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“I know of no way to find a mid-point of a body without drawing a sketch on it, if there is a way, I haven’t found it yet.”

- it was starting to dawn on me that was going to be the way, thanks for confirming!

i did see the video and yes i realize that when doing the initial transform/move/copy you can set the spacing precisely (and i did that) - the issue came afterward when i try to move an already existing object to some precise point in space.

oftentimes this might be you are moving it so that the bottom of the object rests on the same plane as the bottom of some other object, or perhaps, in the wall example, you have created the one wall and i want to line up a floor board, trying multiple directions (parallel, perpendicular, angled ), with the wall. the key part to my question is that the object already exists - so you can’t create and reference it off the existing object.

it seems like this might be like the midpoint example in that it looks like in shapr3d the tools for working precisely with objects are more limited that those for working with sketches. i’m coming from a sketchup background so this is something i took for granted.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Larry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@Larry](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Larry)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 7:47pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/newbie-question-find-midpoint-of-a-line/3458/19 "2018-12-12T19:47:20Z")

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i have not seen it - i will take a look, play around some more with the translate/transform tools and get back to you. thanks again for your help!