Draft Arc

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Arc 3Points

Draft

Menu location
Draft Arc
Drafting → Arc tools → Arc
Workbenches
Draft, Arch
Default shortcut
A R
Introduced in version
0.7
See also
Draft Circle, Draft Ellipse, Draft Arc 3Points

Description

The Draft Arc command creates a circular arc in the current working plane by entering four points, the center, a point that defines the radius, the first end point and the second end point, or by picking tangents, or any combination of those. It uses the Draft Linestyle set on the Draft Tray.

Arc defined by four points, center, radius, initial point of arc and final point of arc

Usage

There are several ways to invoke the command:
- Press the Draft Arc button.
- Select the Drafting → Arc tools → Arc option from the menu.
- Use the keyboard shortcut: A then R.
Click a first point on the 3D view, or type coordinates and press the Enter point button.
Click a second point on the 3D view, or enter a Radius.
Click a third point in the 3D view, or enter a Start angle.
Click a fourth point in the 3D view, or enter an Aperture angle.

Options

The primary use of the arc command is by picking four points: the centre, a point on the circumference, the start of the arc, and its end.
- By pressing Alt, you can select a tangent instead of picking point, to define the base circle of the arc. You can therefore construct several types of circles by selecting one, two or three tangents.
The direction of the arc depends on the movement you are doing with your mouse. If you start to move clockwise after the third point is entered, your arc will go clockwise. To go counter-clockwise, simply move your mouse back over the third point, until the arc starts drawing in the other direction.
To enter coordinates manually, simply enter the numbers, then press Enter between each X, Y and Z component. You can press the Enter point button when you have the desired values to insert the point.
Press T or click the checkbox to toggle continue mode. If continue mode is on, the Arc command will restart after you finish the arc, allowing you to draw another one without pressing the command button again.
Hold Ctrl while drawing to force snapping your point to the nearest snap location, independently of the distance.
Hold Shift while drawing to constrain your point horizontally or vertically in relation to the center.
Press Esc or the Close button to abort the current command.

Properties

An Arc object shares all properties from a Draft Circle, but some properties only make sense for the circle.

Data

DataFirst Angle: specifies the angle of the first point of the arc.
DataLast Angle: specifies the angle of the last point of the arc.
DataRadius: specifies the radius of the arc.
DataMake Face: specifies if the arc makes a face or not. This property only works if the shape is a full circle.

To make an arc a full circle set the DataFirst Angle and DataLast Angle to the same value. The values 0° and 360° aren't considered the same, so if these two values are used, the circle will not form a face.

View

ViewPattern: specifies a Draft Pattern with which to fill the face of the arc. This property only works if the arc is a full circle, and if DataMake Face is true, and if ViewDisplay Mode is "Flat Lines".
ViewPattern Size: specifies the size of the Draft Pattern.

Scripting

The Arc tool can be used in macros and from the Python console by using the same function to create circles, with additional arguments. See the information in Draft Circle.

Example:

import Draft

Arc1 = Draft.makeCircle(200, startangle=0, endangle=90)
Arc2 = Draft.makeCircle(500, startangle=20, endangle=160)
Arc3 = Draft.makeCircle(750, startangle=-30, endangle=-150)