# What is the small red hyphen surrounded by black parentheses that show up when two lines meet/cross?

**URL:** <https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/what-is-the-small-red-hyphen-surrounded-by-black-parentheses-that-show-up-when-two-lines-meet-cross/4800>\
**Category:** Modeling Questions\
**Created:** [May 30, 2019, 1:47am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/what-is-the-small-red-hyphen-surrounded-by-black-parentheses-that-show-up-when-two-lines-meet-cross/4800 "2019-05-30T01:47:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gtrst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@gtrst](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/gtrst)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 1:47am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/what-is-the-small-red-hyphen-surrounded-by-black-parentheses-that-show-up-when-two-lines-meet-cross/4800/1 "2019-05-30T01:47:57Z")

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Hi,  
There’s a little icon that appears when I select an endpoint of a line - when it meets other lines, on the left of the lock icon.  
What does this little icon indicate? It’s a little red hyphen between a pair of black parentheses?

Thank you.

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**Author:** ![gtrst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@gtrst](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/gtrst)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 1:56am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/what-is-the-small-red-hyphen-surrounded-by-black-parentheses-that-show-up-when-two-lines-meet-cross/4800/2 "2019-05-30T01:56:22Z")

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Ah! The lounge chair tutorial addresses it briefly.

It’s the edge constraint, my understanding is that it ‘unlocks’ the point that sits on another line so it can go beyond and become independent. Am I right? Or is there more to it?

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**Author:** ![Istvan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/istvan/32/23668_2.png) [@Istvan](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Istvan)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 7:35am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/what-is-the-small-red-hyphen-surrounded-by-black-parentheses-that-show-up-when-two-lines-meet-cross/4800/3 "2019-05-30T07:35:52Z")

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Yes, it detaches a point from a curve.

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**Author:** ![DanielR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/danielr/32/582_2.png) [@DanielR](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/DanielR)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 8:38am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/what-is-the-small-red-hyphen-surrounded-by-black-parentheses-that-show-up-when-two-lines-meet-cross/4800/4 "2019-05-30T08:38:25Z")

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[https://support.shapr3d.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004182994-Disjoint](https://support.shapr3d.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004182994-Disjoint) That’s all it does 🙂