Drawing hexagons and other regular polygons
Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2021 1:04 pm
Hi Eric
Is there a way that drawing regular polygons can be improved. Specifically hexagons because of drawing nuts and bolts.
In practical terms, hexagons for a nut or bolt head need to be drawn by the "Across Flats" (AF) dimension. So for example an M5 nut is 8mm AF. Its stated dimension across the points is not entirely accurate (in terms of drawing a hexagon) as the corners are rounded off. An M5 nut is 8.76mm across points (because the points are slightly chamfered off), which if you draw a hexagon to that dimension gives 7.59 AF.
With RealCADD at the moment you can draw an accurate hexagon across points by drawing a line the across points length and then drawing the hexagon from the centre of the line to the end points. But there is no way (that I have found) to do the same for an AF dimension.
Holding the shift key or the option key down just drags the final control point out so the hexagon is no longre closed. It doesn't constrain the hexagon so two sides are vertical or horizontal – or to any constraint angle
I have tried using the control key – and drawing from the centre of a line the AF dimension – and sometimes this will align with the end points of the line and the two opposing sides of the hexagon vertical – thus drawing an accurate AF hexagon. But it usually seems to cause RealCADD to crash, and is pretty unreliable anyway.
And it's not particularly easy to construct a hexagon from lines as the relationship between the length of the sides and the AF dimension involves √3.
It might be better if a hexagon at least – surely the most used regular polygon – could be drawn like a rectangle/square as a regular object rather than as a polygon. And perhaps a triangle as well, as this has the same problems being a 3-sided polygon.
Another line in the Tool window perhaps?
Cheers -- George
Is there a way that drawing regular polygons can be improved. Specifically hexagons because of drawing nuts and bolts.
In practical terms, hexagons for a nut or bolt head need to be drawn by the "Across Flats" (AF) dimension. So for example an M5 nut is 8mm AF. Its stated dimension across the points is not entirely accurate (in terms of drawing a hexagon) as the corners are rounded off. An M5 nut is 8.76mm across points (because the points are slightly chamfered off), which if you draw a hexagon to that dimension gives 7.59 AF.
With RealCADD at the moment you can draw an accurate hexagon across points by drawing a line the across points length and then drawing the hexagon from the centre of the line to the end points. But there is no way (that I have found) to do the same for an AF dimension.
Holding the shift key or the option key down just drags the final control point out so the hexagon is no longre closed. It doesn't constrain the hexagon so two sides are vertical or horizontal – or to any constraint angle
I have tried using the control key – and drawing from the centre of a line the AF dimension – and sometimes this will align with the end points of the line and the two opposing sides of the hexagon vertical – thus drawing an accurate AF hexagon. But it usually seems to cause RealCADD to crash, and is pretty unreliable anyway.
And it's not particularly easy to construct a hexagon from lines as the relationship between the length of the sides and the AF dimension involves √3.
It might be better if a hexagon at least – surely the most used regular polygon – could be drawn like a rectangle/square as a regular object rather than as a polygon. And perhaps a triangle as well, as this has the same problems being a 3-sided polygon.
Another line in the Tool window perhaps?
Cheers -- George