topic Marking a distance to locate a design feature in Libraries & objects

Marking a distance to locate a design feature

Anonymous — Fri, 26 May 2023 09:22:45 GMT

I'm having trouble, when designing and sketching: How to determine a certain distance from a wall let say a parallel wall 4 meters from the drawn wall (or a border line or another feature of the design for that matter ). Trying to locate a door 10 c"m from a corner, such matters of finding a certain point in the plan: distance known or determined while designing.Is there a tool, help line or such, to enable snapping to such exact point.

Re: Marking a distance to locate a design feature

NCornia — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:47:32 GMT

Activate the tool you are going to draw with. Hover your mouse over the corner you want to reference from making sure the smart cursor tuns into a checkmark, filled pencil, etc.. If you want to place a door 10cm to the right of a corner type the letter x, a coordinate window will appear. Type 100, then +. A temporary guideline will appear at 10cm to the right of the corner. Place the object with accuracy.

If you are working from a corner on the right and want the door 10cm to the left, hover over the corner, type: x -100 +.

Up from a corner type: y 100 +. Down from a corner type: y -100 + .

Some in the forum have also suggested creating a User Origin and then type the coordinates from there but, I find the method i described to be more efficient for me.

Re: Marking a distance to locate a design feature

andrewzarb — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:24:18 GMT

to supplement NCornia's reply,
If you want to move the item a particular distance at an angle you can also use the r coordinate with the a angle setting.

If it helps, you can also place a user origin to work from.

Re: Marking a distance to locate a design feature

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 08:26:22 GMT

Thanks . very helpful

Re: Marking a distance to locate a design feature

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 20:36:48 GMT

NCornia wrote:
If you are working from a corner on the right and want the door 10cm to the left, hover over the corner, type: x -100 +.

Just x 100- [enter]

Re: Marking a distance to locate a design feature

Barry Kelly — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 01:57:46 GMT

s2art wrote:
NCornia wrote:
If you are working from a corner on the right and want the door 10cm to the left, hover over the corner, type: x -100 +.
Just x 100- [enter]

I think that is an imperial units problem that metric users don't have.
For imperial users I don't think the x 100- [enter] will work.
I think they need to do x -100+ [enter] as NCornia suggested or x 100-- [enter].

Barry.

Re: Marking a distance to locate a design feature

Eduardo Rolon — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 02:02:14 GMT

for Imperial units both are correct

x -100+ [enter] as NCornia suggested or x 100-- [enter]

Re: Marking a distance to locate a design feature

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 02:45:36 GMT

Barry wrote:
s2art wrote:
NCornia wrote:
If you are working from a corner on the right and want the door 10cm to the left, hover over the corner, type: x -100 +.
Just x 100- [enter]
I think that is an imperial units problem that metric users don't have.
For imperial users I don't think the x 100- [enter] will work.
I think they need to do x -100+ [enter] as NCornia suggested or x 100-- [enter].

Barry.

Thanks for making that distinction. We were talking metric units, but good to let those imperialists know that they're different.

Re: Marking a distance to locate a design feature

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:01:01 GMT

Hi Hagit,
Good to see a fellow AC users in Israel,
I thought I was one out of another five HA HA!
Well, you actually asked two different questions
that I would deal with in a number of really daft simple ways:

1st, make sure you open and dock the COORDINATES & CONTROL BOX
pallets (Window>Palettes>...)

2nd, you can also use the floating TRACKER, if you don't mind that little
blue box floating around...

Make sure your keyboard is set to EN and not HE -
So you can input those X, Y,Z, A & R coordinates rather
than Hebrew text.

Now, actually placing stuff in the right place relative to existing elements:
With walls (parallel), I usually choose the PARALEL (or Offset) drafting
method, select the wall tool, click two points on the reference wall,
pull out a bit in the desired offset direction and then use R (radius)
to define the exact distance.

For doors and windows, I just throw them into the wall, then move them
to a corner or known starting point, and then push them exactly to
the right place (Using X, Y or R).

You can also just draw a couple of manual guidelines and snap to those.
Old trick but still works.
🙂
Gil

Re: Marking a distance to locate a design feature

Anonymous — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 10:22:17 GMT

Hi Gil,
Thank you so much for your explanations, somehow I missed your generous post. most helpful. I am,for a while, looking for Israeli mate . Would you know where I can find detailed instructions on changing into Hebrew? Somehow my program is not Hebrew programmed although bought here.

Gil wrote:
Hi Hagit,
Good to see a fellow AC users in Israel,
I thought I was one out of another five HA HA!
Well, you actually asked two different questions
that I would deal with in a number of really daft simple ways:

1st, make sure you open and dock the COORDINATES & CONTROL BOX
pallets (Window>Palettes>...)

2nd, you can also use the floating TRACKER, if you don't mind that little
blue box floating around...

Make sure your keyboard is set to EN and not HE -
So you can input those X, Y,Z, A & R coordinates rather
than Hebrew text.

Now, actually placing stuff in the right place relative to existing elements:
With walls (parallel), I usually choose the PARALEL (or Offset) drafting
method, select the wall tool, click two points on the reference wall,
pull out a bit in the desired offset direction and then use R (radius)
to define the exact distance.

For doors and windows, I just throw them into the wall, then move them
to a corner or known starting point, and then push them exactly to
the right place (Using X, Y or R).

You can also just draw a couple of manual guidelines and snap to those.
Old trick but still works.
🙂
Gil

Re: Marking a distance to locate a design feature

Eric Bobrow — Sun, 01 May 2011 20:22:50 GMT

Since no one mentioned it in this thread, I'd like to clarify that the reason you need the second "-" in the U.S. is because with Imperial units, the system is waiting to see if you're going to continue the data entry with inches. For example "X 10-6-" would move the cursor 10 feet 6 inches to the left, while "X 10-0-" moves it 10 feet 0 inches to the left, and "X 10--" is a shortcut to also move it 10 feet (0 inches implied) to the left.

I used to recommend and teach the "X 10+" or "X 10--" method. However, I have found that this method is often confusing to new users, as they may find it hard to think of left vs. right and up vs. down in terms of + and -. I find it easier to teach gestural methods (i.e. "that way" or "this way") that involve the mouse pointing in the direction you want to go.

One can do this with the Coordinate palette for drawing a wall, or dragging an element, using the "R" key. I used to teach:
1. Start by clicking the first point of your element or where you're dragging an element from
2. Gesture in the direction you want
3. Use the shift key to lock in the angle
4. Type R, then the distance, then Enter

I found this to be the simplest way for new users to draw or drag to the desired distance.

I like Gil's approach to placing doors and windows, since is very easy to understand, although it takes a few more clicks than an advanced user would need. To reiterate, in that method, you simply place the new element in the corner (or right next to an adjacent window) then select and drag it in the direction you want, telling it how far it needs to go. It's very natural.

The past few years, I prefer the Tracker over the Coordinates palette. Obviously Graphisoft feels that the Tracker is an improvement over the Coordinates palette since by default since ArchiCAD 10, they have the Tracker show and the Coordinates palette hidden. With the Tracker, if you gesture with the mouse in the direction you want to go, you usually don't need to type the X, Y or R keys, which fits in to my effort to simplify the process for new users.

I have been experimenting with using temporary Guidelines, and think that they can be a great way to have the best of all these options and ideas. Here is what I have tried, and it seems to work very nicely, with a minimum number of clicks (to satisfy expert users), yet is very easy to understand:

1. Activate the tool you need (e.g. Window, Door, etc.) - this won't work if you're in the Arrow tool
2. Use the Create Guideline Segment command (either from the pull-down in the Guideline button menu, or by typing Shift-`, which is a very easy keyboard shortcut)
3. Click on the wall corner or known starting point (this could be the edge of an existing window, for example) to start the Guideline, then gesture in the direction you want to go (left or right or up or down, or simply along the edge of the wall) and type the distance offset you need (this will go straight into the Tracker as a distance or radius measurement) and hit Enter
4. This will draw the temporary Guideline, and leave the cursor sitting at the endpoint
5. Hit Enter again and your Window, Door or other element start point is entered at the right location
6. The Guideline disappears automatically after the operation is completed

It reads a bit more complicated than it is in practice. The short version:
1. Type Shift-`
2. Click the corner or startpoint
3. Gesture in the direction you need with the mouse
4. Type the distance offset
5. Hit Enter twice

I hope this is clear enough, and perhaps may be helpful to Hagith and others as a very quick and efficient AND easy to understand method of placing elements.

Eric

P.S. As a side note, coordinate input requires displaying either the old Coordinates palette or the Tracker (or both) - typing X, Y, R or A without either of these showing is ignored, and you can't type in a distance. I've found some users migrating from older versions of ArchiCAD turn off the Tracker because it's getting in the way, but don't have the Coordinates palette showing, then they complain that they can't get things placed precisely any more.

Re: Marking a distance to locate a design feature

Anonymous — Mon, 02 May 2011 07:33:44 GMT

Thank you Eric, This post is so much like your "Best practices course" . Methodical, bright and useful.!