Parallel oSnap

For the most part using AutoCAD and Civil 3D come pretty naturally to me. Occasionally I have a hard time grasping how a feature is supposed to work. One such feature is the Parallel oSnap.

I’ve read help, but it just didn’t click. The part from help is below.

Constrains a line segment, polyline segment, ray or xline to be parallel to another linear object. After you specify the first point of a linear object, specify the parallel object snap. Unlike other object snap modes, you move the cursor and hover over another linear object until the angle is acquired. Then, move the cursor back toward the object that you are creating. When the path of the object is parallel to the previous linear object, an alignment path is displayed, which you can use to create the parallel object.

Note Turn off ORTHO mode before using the parallel object snap. Object snap tracking and polar snap are turned off automatically during a parallel object snap operation. You must specify the first point of a linear object before using the parallel object snap.

I was OK picking the first point, it seemed really easy. I was able to select the object I wanted to be parallel to, but then help says to go “back toward the object you are creating.” Well it never seemed to show the path of the parallelness. I guess I just expected it to show up right away and not have to wait for the path to show up. The error message wasn’t much help.

No Endpoint found for specified point.
2D point or option keyword required.

I guess I needed an error message that said wait for the path to show up when the cursor is parallel to the target object. Well I got it figured out, you have to get the cursor near to where the object will be drawn and parallel to the other linear object. Here’s the oSnap in action: