Constraint Circle Tool tangency aware rotation and fixed bounding system
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This is a proposal for a different kind of ellipse tool one that understands geometric relationships and preserves them throughout the editing process.
The idea comes from a recurring limitation in standard vector tools: the moment an ellipse is rotated or scaled, any tangent relationships it holds with other shapes break silently and need to be corrected manually.
What this tool does differently the bounding box never rotates. It remains fixed on the canvas, independent from the shape. This is similar to the Reset Transform behavior in VectorStyler, where the object and its bounding space are treated separately. The ellipse rotates and adapts within that fixed space, rather than transforming together with it.
When a tangent point is double-clicked, it locks to a line or another circle. From that moment on, rotating or scaling the ellipse will not break that contact. The tangent point slides along the reference as needed, but the relationship remains intact. The rest of the shape can still be adjusted freely.
The rotation angle is displayed live during interaction, providing continuous visual feedback. I’ve put together a few visuals to help explain the behavior more clearly.
I’ve attached a short video below to demonstrate the behavior more clearly. I’m aware that this might require non-trivial implementation and I may be missing some technical considerations, but I wanted to share the concept as a potential direction.