Tracking Points and Lines – first end of member

Having generated new structure as shown, you can easily see how, when clicking on the first end of a member and now selecting the second end of a member, that we automatically get tracking lines about the first end of the Member.

However, in certain circumstances we may wish to have tracking lines to generate the first end of a member. As we can see we automatically get tracking lines along existing structure. However, tracking points and lines can also be provided at any point by simply hovering over a location (red X) to provide a temporary tracking point or line about which to select a new snap point.

Multiple tracking points can be selected (red Xs below) allowing the intersections of those lines to be quickly generated and the start point of a new member picked.

The nature of a tracking line provided at a tracking point can be controlled using the tracking settings. Here we can see we get tracking points as a ‘project from’, ‘orthogonal from’ and also ‘perpendicular to’.

Project from

Orthogonal from

Perpendicular to

This can be controlled in the tracking settings. So, if we wish to have ‘perpendicular to tracking lines’ not on, and ‘extension tracking line’ which is ‘projected from’ tracking lines not on, then we can do so.

So here we can see that we simply get now orthogonal tracking lines. Hence, we do not get tracking lines ‘projecting from’ the members about which the tracking point is located.

However, these are extremely useful, and we recommend that you keep those turned on.