Monthly Archives: September 2025

Complex Shape 1 with Arcs and Constraints

  1. Use the front plane and the make a 3 point arc centered at the origin 3 point arc
  2.  Picture:screenshot.1
  3.  Use the dimension tool   to set the radius to 20 mm : dimension the arc
  4. Resulting shape : screenshot.2
  5.  create 2 lines that are attached to the circle and that meet at a point outside the circle. Dimensions don’t matter, yet, for these. Your document should look similar to (does not have to be exact
  6. : two secant lines
  7.  Use the Tangent tool to make both lines tangent . You must select both the circle and the line as shown below:2 tangents
  8.   Create a construction line from the end points of the arc:

    construction line-diameter

    Click to enlarge image

  9. Create a Rectangle, as shown in the video below. Watch the end carefully for how to make the points coincident. Your interconnected shape should move as shown below:rectnagle w coincident points
  10.  Use the Dimension tool to make sure that the height of the rect is 65 MM :

    Click to enlarge image

    Click to enlarge image

  11. Add a midpoint to the bottom of the rectangle:Click to enlarge
  12. Make a Circle centered at that midpointbottom center
  13. Dimension the bottom circle so that its diameter is 35 : dimension bottom circle
  14.  As you can see only the top tangent line is blue. So that’s the last item to dimension! Dimension it to 42 :
  15. top is 42
  16. Use the trim tool to remove the top half of the circle and its diameter line:trim interior
  17. Now your turn. In the same document. Create a complex separate shape. This shape should include a minimum of 5 simple shapes. 1 of the shapes must be an arc or a semicircle. All of the shapes must be dimensioned.

Constraints Additional Practice

 

Step 1)  Create a new sketch on the front plane. There should only be 1 sketch that you use

Step 2)  Create a circle and then use the “coincident ” button to center it on the origin by clicking on the origin, the center of the circle :

center circle with coincident

 

Step 3) make its radius 15 MM by using the dimension tool

dimension circle with button

Here’s what your document should now look like :

15 mm circle

Step 4)  Do the same thing with a second circle . Make its radius 30

Picture: 30 mm circle

Step 5) Make a line that touches the circle, anywhere. Like the picture below:

secant line

 

 

Step 5) Find the “tangent line”  constraint (this might be a dropdown)tangent line

 

Step 6) Here’s how you create a tangent line.

Click the circle , click the line you made, then press “tangent line ”

 

how to make tangent line

Step 7)  Make a construction line from the tangent line to the bottom

construction line

 

Step  8) Make a second tangent line as shown:

tangent line 2

 

Step 8) Dimension both tangent lines so that they are 60 MM each

 

Step 9) Add a second shape that is dimensioned.

DDP Assignments

Unit 1, Onshape