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Off Axis - Tangents - page 4
Since the front is still an isometric face in every respect (only rotated) an isometric ellipse will fit perfectly. Get the ellipse stack you drew earlier group it and then rotate 120 degrees with the Transform Roll-up. Drag the stack over the front face and position the isometric ellipse (sixth and shown in red) over the front face. Play with the scale until this ellipse just about touches the edges of the front. Notice that the thrust line is parallel to the top of the side. This is the key to tangent projection. An edge of an adjacent face always establishes the thrust line.
Duplicate the ellipse stack and move off to the side. Go back to the original and ungroup it. Delete the thrust line and all of the extra ellipses.
Get the stack you placed off to the side and move it over the cube. Double click on the stack to get the rotation handles an spin the stack until the thrust line is parallel to the front/side edge. An alternate method is to measure the angle of this edge and then uses the Transform Roll-up to apply the proper rotation. Since the scale of the stack was established in the last step simply position the correct ellipse over the side face. I like the 45 degree ellipse here (#8).
Duplicate the ellipse stack and move off to the side again. Go back to the original and ungroup it. Delete the thrust line and all of the extra ellipses. Get the stack you place off to the side and move it over the cube. Double click on the stack to get the rotation handles an spin the stack until the thrust line is parallel to the front/top edge. Position the correct ellipse over the side face. I like the 20 degree ellipse here (#4).

 

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