topic Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th in Modeling

Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I think]

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 00:58:26 GMT

Hello all,

Has anyone run into the option to change the length of walls and lines in a relative distance rather than an absolute distance. By this I mean that if I select a wall that is 3 feet long grab a hotspot and start dragging the end and enter the new distance as 2 feet, I would like that wall to become 5 feet in length, not 2 feet. The only solution I have at the moment is to use [alt] + [shift] to place the user origin at the opposite end of the wall from the hotspot and stretch from there. While this is acceptable it is not the greatest in my opinion. Does anyone know of a global option to control this that I am just not seeing?

Thanks,

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 01:24:29 GMT

Rob,
Drawing a wall by hitting "R" and then entering the length then hitting enter has always worked for me. If you then grab the end node and start
stretching, hit "R" again and enter a length, then hit enter, the wall is
lengthened by that amount and the total length is now the old
length plus the added length.
This does not work when stretching library parts. Library parts
work like you describe.
Do you have the relative coordinates triangle highlighted
in the coordinates palette ?
Peter Devlin

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Link — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 02:15:54 GMT

I think that's just the default behaviour of the Edit Origin when stretching via the pet palette and it's opposite than when performing any other edit. It's the same for Walls, Beams, Lines, Labels and S/E's and AFAIK there is no switch as such to change it.

An alternative is to hit R2+=, and while it's easier using the Numerical keypad, it's still not much easier than manually repositioning the Edit Origin the way they are.

Would be nice though - and could even move towards a kind of Nudge command.

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 02:53:07 GMT

Hello Link,
You have me confused.
Are you saying that the method I suggested does not work ?
When you say "edit origin" are you referring to creating a
"user origin" ?
When I use the method I describe I do not have to
create a user origin.
Please explain if you would.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Link — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 03:36:36 GMT

Peter said:

You have me confused.

Uh-oh, I've done that to you before...

Are you saying that the method I suggested does not work ?

Not for me mate. Never has AFAIR. My wall is not lengthened by that amount - it's lengthened to that amount.

When you say "edit origin" are you referring to creating a
"user origin" ? When I use the method I describe I do not have to
create a user origin.

No I am talking about the Edit Origin that overrides the User Origin when you are editing/creating something.

Please explain if you would.

Sounds like you know something we don't!

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Barry Kelly — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 03:46:02 GMT

Peter wrote:
Hello Link,
You have me confused.
Are you saying that the method I suggested does not work ?
When you say "edit origin" are you referring to creating a
"user origin" ?
When I use the method I describe I do not have to
create a user origin.
Please explain if you would.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

Seems to be a new feature in V10?
The origin is always the opposite end of the wall.
So R 2 will set the length to 2 and R 2 + = will add 2 to the length.

In V8.1 (can't say for V9) the origin for the stretch would snap to the end of the wall that was closest to the cursor when you press the shift key.
So you could control whether 2 was added to the length or used as the overall length by simply positioning your cursor appropriately.

Barry.

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Link — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 03:53:28 GMT

Of course you are right Barry - it's relative to the nearest node.

My memory is obviously FAILING ME!

I gotta get more sleep.

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 04:04:49 GMT

Hello Link,
We have a mystery here.
You say that the method I described does not work for you.
Ever since I started using AC starting with AC 4.5
I have always used the method I described and it always worked.
I have always had the relative coordinate triangle highlighted
and I don't use any other key commands other than "R" and "shift"
if that makes a difference.
Barry, can you get my method to work ?
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Barry Kelly — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 09:59:03 GMT

Peter wrote:
Barry, can you get my method to work ?
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

Peter,
Not in V10.
Not unless I place the cursor at the end of the wall and type R 2 + enter.
Relative coordinate triangle are on.

Just turned the guidelines off and then using SHIFT it works as you describe (same as earlier versions).
I guess you are not using the guidelines?

Barry.

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Stephen Dolbee — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 12:09:47 GMT

I've noticed with Tracker on, it prefers "D" for distance rather than "R".

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 17:24:46 GMT

Barry,
You are right. I did have guidelines turned off.
When I turn them on I get the same behavior you do.
To bad. I liked how it worked before but now that
AC does not have the cutom constraint angle
I have to use guidelines and do the addition operation.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 17:36:45 GMT

Stephen,
I just tried "D" and it seemed to work just like "R".
You say AC prefers "D". How do you mean this ?
Is the result more consistent using "D" versus "R" ?
Peter Devlin

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Link — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 22:05:04 GMT

Stephen wrote:
I've noticed with Tracker on, it prefers "D" for distance rather than "R".

It shouldn't though. D & R should do exactly the same thing in the tracker. I still prefer R, because of this reason.

It appears that with the Guide on we need to temporarily backtrack over our wall before holding shift when stretching it, to have the Edit Origin snap to that end. Without the Guide Lines on it works just like it did previously.

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 22:09:26 GMT

I just tried an experiment because i was sure i had seen different results on different occasions.
I drew a line, selected it, grabbed an end node and started to stretch - the display in the tracker was showing distance from the start of the line (not the node I had selected).
I pressed SHIFT to constrain angle, still showed distance from start of line.
I released SHIFT then pressed it again, it now showed distance from selected node.
It appears the SHIFT key is a toggle between the two.

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 22:17:10 GMT

Ha ha!! After posting the above message I went back to the same drawing, the same line and got different results again. Seems flakey.

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Stephen Dolbee — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 11:56:11 GMT

Peter wrote:
Stephen,
I just tried "D" and it seemed to work just like "R".
You say AC prefers "D". How do you mean this ?
Is the result more consistent using "D" versus "R" ?
Peter Devlin

I think "D" is more consistent than "R". Sometimes (although not always) when "R" is used, the angle changes even though I am constraining the angle with the shift key.

Steve

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 19:19:01 GMT

Just an observation. I have noticed for awhile now that the folks fro GS are conspicuous by their absence from these forums. You would think that someone from GS would chime in and acknowledge shift as a toggle or not. Perhaps they are just lurking and gathering data for the next bug-fix.

Hello.......Anybody out there??

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

TomWaltz — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 19:28:46 GMT

gbley wrote:
Just an observation. I have noticed for awhile now that the folks fro GS are conspicuous by their absence from these forums. You would think that someone from GS would chime in and acknowledge shift as a toggle or not. Perhaps they are just lurking and gathering data for the next bug-fix.

Hello.......Anybody out there??

You believe in unicorns, don't you? 😉

Re: Adjusting Walls and Lines (Relative vrs. Absolute) [I th

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 19:30:32 GMT

Next you're going to tell me there is no Easter Bunny