Creating a Line Tangent to a Curve

You can create a line tangent to a single curve, a point and a curve or two curves.

Before you begin: Create a 3D shape containing geometric elements.
  1. From the Wireframe section of the action bar, click Line .
    The Line Definition dialog box appears.
  2. Select Tangent to curve.
  3. Select a reference Curve and a point or another curve as Element 2 to define the tangency.

    • If a point is selected (mono-tangent mode): a vector tangent to the curve is displayed at the selected point.

    • If a second curve is selected (or a point in bi-tangent mode), you need to select a support plane. The line will be tangent to both curves.

    Line tangent to curve at a given point

    When several solutions are possible, you can choose one (here displayed in green) directly in the geometry, or using Next Solution :

    Line tangent to two curves
  4. Optional: Specify the Line End point to define the new line.
  5. Click OK to create the line.
    The line (identified as Line.xxx) is added to the specification tree.