topic Re: Drawing walls by reference in Modeling

Drawing walls by reference

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:11:56 GMT

Sorry for the very basic question. Attached screenshot should indicate clearly my question - how to begin and end a wall (or any other element) by reference to already drawn elements?

I have read a few prior posts which are close to what I am looking for, but solutions are not working for me. Thank you for your help.

Re: Drawing walls by reference

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:16:28 GMT

Sorry, having a hard time attaching screenshot, trying again

Re: Drawing walls by reference

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:27:14 GMT

To quickly answer your question - go to AC Help and in the search field, type this in: Special Snap Points on Temporary Vector

This will show you where you can find the icon to help you in this type of location input. Except, you would be using the Special Snap option of Half instead of the Division shown in the Help example.

As for ending the wall 8 feet away from another wall, I would draw the wall all the way to the inside face of Wall C so that my tracker input shows the distance, then intercept it by hitting pressing r or d on the keyboard to input my own number 8 feet less than the number shown in tracker.

Re: Drawing walls by reference

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:15:22 GMT

Thank you ksymons,

Your tips allow me to do what I am trying to do, a bit cumbersome, but both the tips for both the start and end point work.

How would I start a wall -3',-8' from another wall intersection?

Thanks again

Re: Drawing walls by reference

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:35:06 GMT

For the half-way point, look for the button highlighted below in the Control Box palette (Windows> Palettes> Control Box from menu).

Not knowing the keystrokes necessary for imperial dimensions I will describe it in metric - you can translate....

To start at a point relative to a know point, with Tracker turned on, hover cursor over your reference point to get the tick cursor, type "X 3 -" then "Y 8 -" then hit Enter (without the quotes or the spaces) and your cursor will jump to the relative spot. You can do the same with + (plus) instead of - (minus) to move in the opposite direction.

I also prefer this to ksymmonds method of subtracting from the displayed dimension, as it is more accurate.

So for your example above you would do the following:
- select the wall tool
- select the half way button in the Control Box palette
- click on the end of the wall D
- click on wall B at the point perpendicular to first click
- (wall starts)
- drag cursor to right, constraining with shift key, till you get perpendicular cursor at wall C
- without clicking, type x8- [Enter]

Your new wall will be complete.

Re: Drawing walls by reference

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:51:14 GMT

Thank you s2art,

I have tried following your instructions,

- drag cursor to right, constraining with shift key, till you get perpendicular cursor at wall C
- without clicking, type x8- [Enter]

No matter how many times or how many variations I am able to come up with, this results in a wall which is 8 units, or negative units units from my start point, not my intended reference point. Is there something I am missing?

Thanks

Re: Drawing walls by reference

Erika Epstein — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:20:28 GMT

Place your local origin alt/opt+shift on one edge of the opening. Since you know the size of the opening,
-activate the wall tool,
-type in x and y coordinates to the center of the opening
- and once you hit enter you will start drawing your wall.

HTH

Re: Drawing walls by reference

David Maudlin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:03:20 GMT

Paul:

Also, since you are using Imperial units:
The first "-" you type after a number is interpreted as a separator between feet & inches, the second "-" determines direction, so if you are trying to enter 8'-0" as a negative distance you would type "8--" (the lack of a second number between the two "--" will be interpreted as 0 inches).

HTH

David

Re: Drawing walls by reference

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:38:24 GMT

Thank you David, the double dash made the difference, can now accomplish my task.

Paul

Re: Drawing walls by reference

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:54:57 GMT

Ah, sweeeet! Didn't know about the double negative. I learned something new, too!

Re: Drawing walls by reference

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:35:46 GMT

Thanks, David, for the translation to Imperial. I knew there was something different, but was not sure what.

Re: Drawing walls by reference

David Maudlin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:40:15 GMT

Glad to help gents. Just one of the "advantages" of living in an Imperial world. I would not expect a metric user to be aware of this.

David

Re: Drawing walls by reference

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 23:11:19 GMT

Hi, I have another very basic question I can't answer on my own, trying to move an object a specific distance from a known reference point, please see attached. Thank you very much for any help.

Re: Drawing walls by reference

David Maudlin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:39:47 GMT

Paul:

1. Select the window
2. Invoke the Drag command
3. Click on the hotspot you want to use on the window
4. Drag the window to the corner
5. Type "x 21.5" - -"
6. Hit Enter or Return

This works for placing any element relative to any point.

David

Re: Drawing walls by reference

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:05:11 GMT

Thank you

Re: Drawing walls by reference

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 16:05:45 GMT

David wrote:
Paul:

1. Select the window
2. Invoke the Drag command
3. Click on the hotspot you want to use on the window
4. Drag the window to the corner
5. Type "x 21.5" - -"
6. Hit Enter or Return

This works for placing any element relative to any point.

David

Thanks again David - one problem I have consistently is:

When the cursor hovers over the intersection I want to draw relative to, I enter x or y and the tracker displays the coordinates of some other origin, and when I enter the distance I want to offset, the element is started or placed relative to that other origin, not to the point where my cursor is hovering.

My workaround is to manually create a user origin (Shift + Opt click) on the point I want to start from and then things work just as you have described.

I have tried this with "Show X-Y Coordinates relative to User origin in Tracker" checked both on and off with same results.

Sorry for this long message, I hope the question is clear - essentially I want to avoid the step of manually setting the User Origin, and I guess from your instructions this should be possible. Maybe another setting that I have wrong.

Thanks again,

Pail

Re: Drawing walls by reference

David Maudlin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:32:11 GMT

Paul:

What you observe is true, but it is not necessary to relocate the User Origin to use this method. When you hit the "x" key, the distance in the Tracker is shown from the User Origin, after entering the distance the Tracker is showing the changed distance, again from the User Origin, but this difference is the distance you want to move the element. (This is the same behavior shown in the Coordinates Palette.) So ignore the Tracker if that helps, as long as the input is relative (the + or - follows the input distance), then the drag distance will be correct. You can check this using the User Origin if you need to verify the drag.

David