How do I draw a triangle with 3 given side lengths as the paramete

[Mark McManus]

I need to draw lots of different triangles and all I know is the length of
each of the three sides. I do not know the angles. How can I best draw these
shapes in Visio?

In addition, I would like to know how to draw polygons (4 or 5 sides) with
side lengths as the only parameters.

 

[Philippe C.]

In the shapesheet I see that it starts with a Width, a height and and angle.
The geometry is derived from these.

 

[Paul Herber]

On Thu, 4 Oct 2007 16:13:01 -0700, Mark McManus <Mark

I need to draw lots of different triangles and all I know is the length of
each of the three sides. I do not know the angles. How can I best draw these
shapes in Visio?

I'm no expert but I think you are exceeding what can be done with
standard geometry.
It might be possible:
1. use 3 diagonal connectors
2. add bi-directional connection points at each end
3. glue them all together
4. put a guarded value in each length

I couldn't keep them all glued together.

In addition, I would like to know how to draw polygons (4 or 5 sides) with
side lengths as the only parameters.

I think you'll find these might be impossible. There are an infinite
number of ways of drawing these.

 

[Nick Pomponio]

I need to draw lots of different triangles and all I know is the length of
each of the three sides. I do not know the angles. How can I best draw
these
shapes in Visio?

If you choose one of the sides (say, the longest one) to be the horizontal
base,
then the coordinates (0,0) and (L1,0), where L1 is the length of the line,
are
two of the three points you need. You can compute the angle, A, between the
base and a second side using the law of cosines. The coordinates of the
third
point are then (L2*cos(A),L2*sin(A)), where L2 is the length of the second
side.

In addition, I would like to know how to draw polygons (4 or 5 sides) with
side lengths as the only parameters.

Unless some other constraints are added (such as regular polygons with all
sides and angles equivalent), the polygons are not unique.

 

[Paul Herber]

On Thu, 4 Oct 2007 16:13:01 -0700, Mark McManus <Mark

I need to draw lots of different triangles and all I know is the length of
each of the three sides. I do not know the angles. How can I best draw these
shapes in Visio?

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SSSTheorem.html

 

[WapperDude]

One additional note, draw all your lines, say horizontally, and lock their
width Format>Protection>Width. This will prevent the length from changing.
But, you will not be able to rotate them with the cursor. Use the formulas
for the angles, you will need to compute two of them, with the acos()
function. This formula may be directly entered into the angle value position
provided on the Size and Position Window (menubar>View>Size and Position).
Then you can move and position the sides to form your triangle.

If you want to fill the triangle, you will need to go to
menubar>Shapes>Operations>Join.

Wapperdude