Tutorial Intermediate ⏱ 10 minutes

Using Construction Lines (v1.1)

Use the Preview Construction Line feature to create temporary helper geometry — locating final geometry precisely without cluttering the committed drawing.

What You Will Build

A circle precisely located at the intersection of two construction lines — demonstrating the Construction Line workflow introduced in XyzPilot v1.1.

Operators Used

Line/Parlel,XAxis,D Line/Parlel,YAxis,D Point/Intof,L,L Circle/Centre,R

Start Preview Mode

Construction lines are only available during a Preview session.

Click "Preview" to start a Preview session.
The Construct Line control appears in the right flyout panel.
Default state: Construct Line OFF

Enable Construction Line Mode

Turn on the Construct Line toggle to create amber dashed helper lines.

Right flyout panel → Construct Line ON

All new lines created while this toggle is ON will be:
  - Displayed in amber (#ffcc00)
  - Displayed with dashed style [6, 3]
  - Automatically removed when Preview is committed
  - NOT included in DXF exports or toolpath output

Construction lines support intersections, tangency, and all geometric reasoning operators — they behave like normal lines during the Preview session.

Create Construction Lines

Create two construction lines to locate the centre of a circle.

Line/Parlel, XAxis, D=45  → amber dashed line at Y=45
Line/Parlel, YAxis, D=65  → amber dashed line at X=65

Both lines appear amber and dashed on the canvas.
They are visible but will not be committed.

Find the Intersection

Use the construction lines to locate the exact centre point.

Point/Intof, L_const1, L_const2
→ P0 = (65, 45)  [intersection of construction lines]

P0 is a normal preview point (not a construction entity).
It will be committed when Preview is committed.

Disable Construction Line Mode

Turn off the Construct Line toggle before creating the final geometry.

Right flyout panel → Construct Line OFF

Subsequent new lines will be normal preview lines
(standard colour, solid stroke, committed on Commit Preview).

Create the Final Geometry

Use the intersection point to place the final circle precisely.

Circle/Centre, P0, R=20, 0
→ C0: circle at (65,45), radius=20mm

C0 is a normal preview entity (construction=false).
It will be committed when Preview is committed.

Commit Preview

Commit the Preview session. Construction lines are automatically removed.

Click "Commit Preview"

Result:
  Construction lines → REMOVED (construction=true)
  P0 = (65,45) → COMMITTED (receives stable ID)
  C0 = circle at (65,45) → COMMITTED (receives stable ID)

The canvas shows only the committed geometry:
  P0 and C0 — no construction lines visible.

The construction lines never appear in the committed drawing, DXF exports, or toolpath output. They existed only to help locate the final geometry.

Tips & Best Practices

Construction lines are only available during a Preview session.
Turn Construct Line OFF before creating the final geometry you want to keep.
Construction lines support all geometric reasoning — intersections, tangency, etc.
Use Dashed/Circle for construction reference circles (same behaviour as construction lines).
Construction lines are automatically removed on Commit — no manual cleanup needed.

Operators Used in This Tutorial

Line/Parlel,XAxis,D

Using Construction Lines (v1.1)

Start Preview Mode

Enable Construction Line Mode

Create Construction Lines

Find the Intersection

Disable Construction Line Mode

Create the Final Geometry

Commit Preview

Tips & Best Practices

Operators Used in This Tutorial

Horizontal Line

Vertical Line

Line Line Intersection

Circle by Centre and Radius

Related Tutorials

Intersection-Based Construction

Perpendicular Bisector Construction

Complete CNC Profile from Drawing