Locking an axis

This is a little hard to explain, but I would like to know if I can lock the starting axis of a line, circle, or other drawn entity. In other words, I start a line in Top view and I want to snap to a point in another view, but on the same plane as the starting point. Or sometimes I start a line from a snapped point and move to another view to complete what I think is a 2D shape, only to later find out I drew the shape in 3 planes.

If it’s not clear, I can try to illustrate.

Thanks,
Frank

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Turn on Planar and Project Osnaps.

“Planar” keeps you on the plane of the previous point unless another snaps pulls you off of that plane or you deliberately move off of that plane.

“Project” projects other snaps onto the plane of the previous point.

Hi Frank - try this -

Start Line in top and place a point, then drag your cursor off in say the Y direction and tap the Tab key. Then move to the Right view and you’ll see that the direction is still locked to the axis you set in Top with the Tab direction lock. Tab is a toggle so you can unlock the direction with another tap on Tab, and then lock it again to some other direction if you like. See Help index on ‘Tab key’.

-Pascal

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The Tab Key is exactly the axis lock I was looking for.
Thank you.

Frank

[EDIT] If you are using the same search terms as me, find the answer here:
http://discourse.mcneel.com/t/how-to-draw-in-a-locked-plane/14559

[SOLVED] Hey guys,

I’m looking for a similar kind of lock, but rather for a plane, instead of 1 axis.

  • I’m tracing a drawing, and objects based on different heights on the Z axis,
  • I am using and do want to use snapping.
  • I want to the snapping to ignore the Z axis and keep in the same XY plane I started my first point at.

How can I do this? There should be an easier way to create planar polylines/curves instead of having to pull all the points to the same Z height, or to have to project every curve I make.

Planar and SmartTrack?

Best regards,
Doug

And Project Osnap

Willem, I thought the Tab Key was the answer, but I like this better. It would have been a lot easier to find if it was an Osnap option.
Thank you!

Frank

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