Tangent Line

[JVERDE]

I am a new user of Autocad LT and I was wondering if you could help me out with drawing a tangent line to a point on a circle. I am having a lot of trouble so any advice would be much appreciated.

[Guest Alan Cullen]

No worries mate.

 

First, draw a line from the centre of the circle (osnap CENTRE), and for the second point, pick the point on the circle you want the tangent to be at.

 

then use ROTATE, pick that line you just drew, pick the endpoint (on the circle), and rotate it 90. That is your tangent.

 

P.S. Welcome to the forum.

[Lazer]

Many ways to skin a cat, I will add another way, draw a circle then draw a line anywhere on screen and then hold shift then rightmouse click and select tangent, then move mouse to the circle and it will snap a tangent for you , then rotate it to the correct position.

[Guest Alan Cullen]

ahh, yes lazer, that is the one I use often. Forgot about it this time, but well done, mate.

 

I didn't even think about osnap TAN.

[JamalNUMAN]

Many ways to skin a cat, I will add another way, draw a circle then draw a line anywhere on screen and then hold shift then rightmouse click and select tangent, then move mouse to the circle and it will snap a tangent for you , then rotate it to the correct position.

 

Greetings,

 

My issue here is that I wanted to draw a line tangent to a circle at a PARTICULAR point (attached).

 

What might be the best practice to accomplish this with least number of steps?

 

Thank you

 

Best

 

Jamal

[danellis]

Use Allan's method, specifying 48d13" as the angle for your initial line, set its length to the radius of the circle (if known, if not set a fairly random but ball-park length and extend/trim so it hits the line) then rotate 90 or 270 degrees.

 

dJE

[eldon]

If the radius line is already drawn, then, with polar tracking enabled, just draw the tangent from the endpoint of the radius. Polar tracking will show you the lines at right angles to the radius.

[JamalNUMAN]

If the radius line is already drawn, then, with polar tracking enabled, just draw the tangent from the endpoint of the radius. Polar tracking will show you the lines at right angles to the radius.

 

 

Many thanks guys for the help. It works fine

 

Best

 

Jamal