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Symmetric constraints around horizontal and vertical axes considered redundant (by Laurence)
Hello all,

In the attached model, Solvespace reports that having both horizontal and vertical constraints for the "Leica" text is redundant.

Why is this? I want to have the text centered both horizontally and vertically around the primary sketch axes, so this seems necessary.

Any advice much appreciated.
Thu Mar 27 2025, 06:56:02, download attachment leica_cap.slvs
(no subject) (by Daniel Engineering Solutions)
Laurence,

I'm not entirely sure why it's saying they're redundant, but you can click "allow redundant constraints" and it won't affect the model negatively. Typically I constrain geometry that needs to be centered using construction lines and midpoints. Ultimately it doesn't matter though and I'd put say this is just a modeling preference.
Thu Mar 27 2025, 10:39:57
(no subject) (by Paul)
That's really interesting. The original text item has 4 Degrees of Freedom (DoF). We can think of these as 2 for position (x,y) one for orientation (rotation angle) and one for size.

You used symmetric constraints which each reduce the DoF by 2, but what specifically do those constrain? Doing vertically symmetric on 2 points we might say sets the Y position of the text AND the rotation angle of the text.

Then when you apply the symmetric constraint to 2 points that are horizontal That would set the X position AND the rotation angle AGAIN. Notice that constraining the rotation a second time is redundant, and even though we applied enough constraints to reduce it by 4DoF nothing actually constrained the size of the text.

For the second constraint you might instead try placing a diagonal construction line across the text and then constrain its midpoint to the origin (select the line and point, press M).

Another option is to draw a vertical line, then select the line and 2 endpoints of the text, press Q for equal distance (point to line) to center it.

Either of those approaches will leave you with 1 DoF which you can use to set the size of the text.
Fri Mar 28 2025, 09:24:18
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