Force display of perpendicular inference

Gaieus

Press the Up/Down arrow key. It works with some tools (line tool, move tool) but unfortunately not with others (arc tool for instance).

Also Right key = red axis, Green key = green axis

brookefox

Thanks, Gai...

I had written that off as devoted to the Z axis.

Gaieus

Ah, sorry, I completely misread your post. Of course that is for the Z axis.

Well, you cannot force a perpendicular inference this way but you can always "encourage" it and then lock it. This is how it works (actually with all kinds of inferences - and in this case both with perpendicular and parallel works similarly)

Start hovering your corsor ober the line you want to get a perpendicular/parallel inference to. When the tooltip "On edge" appears, start moving the cursor towards where you suspect the perpendivular/parallel inferencing.
Once the magenta line appears (for either), press and hold the Shift key and you are now locked

brookefox

Yes, thanks, if I could get sight of the dang thing I could lock it. A rare and endangered species.

Gaieus

Step 1 is very important. And in fact, you can then hover over the most convenient areas - later (when locked) can come back to where you actually want to draw.

brookefox

Yes, that seems to help. Thank you.

dukejazz

It very eazy using styles

Make the the sky blue
and the ground bround

So if you see blue it easy to manage z perpendicular inference
and when you see brown the parallel x and y axies inference is lock in

put object is in a group so you can easily rotate it with move commmand.

Also turn on you cross hair mode on in windows_preferences_draw

brookefox

My issue is the perp rather than the Z, and I'm going to go way out on a limb now and say that SU has an easy time reporting the x,y,and z inferences because they are constants in the model world whereas the perp inference very much is relative to the picked or 'proximated' entity and so is much harder to infer, so, yes, a little stroking might be expected to be required.

Gaieus

Alternatively, you can always (temporarily) align the axes to a certain line and then use the other axis inference to draw a perpendicular one.

dukejazz

Have you tried Three line tool by Chris Fullmer
Using line_normals to start a normlize line direction
clf_vertical_line_maker_loader.rb
or
Guides Axes Normal by TIG
Can add 3 guide lines normal to picked face or workplane.
clinesaxesnormal.rb

Work Plane by TIG
Adds true working plane(s) and grid(s) in your model.
WorkPlane.rb

Once you find the normal you can use the axes tool set normal to new z to force display of perpendicular inference

Like you said Gaieus "align the axes to a certain line and then use the other axis inference to draw a perpendicular one."