@simoncbevans wrote:
Here is something that could be very useful to SU users who have to set out structures on plan or produce site plans from site measurements.
The standard method to establish where a point is on plan is to triangulate from a line of known position and length. On a drawing board, you would use a compass to create two arcs and their intersection would give the point you want. Doing this in native SU is problematic because arcs are not true. This can be overcome to some extent by increasing the number of sides the arcs have, but it is still only an approximation.
I use @slbaumgartner’s extension SB Circle Intersect for better accuracy. That places construction points at the two intersections. However, they can be hard to see without zooming right in as they tend to be very close to the arcs themselves. So how about the following as a refinement?
Instead of drawing the arcs, you first invoke the extension. Then you select the centre-point of the first arc and input its radius. Then you do the same for the second arc. No arcs are actually drawn. Instead, a construction line with construction points at both ends is drawn between the two intersections. Now it’s easy to see and you can easily start drawing from whichever end of the temporary construction line you need.
I realize that this only works for arcs and that it would be complicated if they weren’t on a flat plane. Circle Intersect allows more flexibility in that respect. However, I suspect that the situation of two arcs on a flat plane is by far the commonest.
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