topic Re: Offseting Tips in Modeling

Offseting Tips

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 14:07:51 GMT

can someone drum up a simple offest command...you would think there would be one....for example if a create a joined polyline and fillet the edges....why can't I do a simple copy offset.....just curious

Re: Offseting Tips

TomWaltz — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 14:54:15 GMT

Why can't you? Doesn't offset already do that?

Re: Offseting Tips

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 17:26:01 GMT

no it doesn't I created something from scratch....here is what I did....

use polyline....then I used fillet command at 5'....how do I make a copy offset of this creature

Re: Offseting Tips

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 17:59:07 GMT

1. Select polyline
2. Select offest tool from the special tools (like perpendicular, parallel....)
3. Magic Wand the polyline
4. Move the cursor and it will offset.

Re: Offseting Tips

TomWaltz — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 18:23:49 GMT

Step 5: Type R and 5', then hit enter.

Re: Offseting Tips

Link — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 18:42:34 GMT

Step 6 - don't worry about step 1 and skip straight to step 2!

Sorry - couldn't resist!

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Offseting Tips

TomWaltz — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 18:50:49 GMT

I dunno Link..... could be bad of you have the Wall tool selected when you wanted a polyline...

Re: Offseting Tips

Link — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 19:19:54 GMT

Ahhh - yes - then let's clarify step number one:

Select the Polyline tool, not the polyline, on the screen, as I read it!

That'll teach me for trying to be funny again!

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Offseting Tips

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 13:09:21 GMT

thanks tom,

I owe you a beer.....btw step 1 is important....thats was the step I was missing....it would only work if I choose the polyline command...in addition to that...it take on the default settings....thanks again...more question to come

Re: Offseting Tips

TomWaltz — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 17:41:45 GMT

The technique is a little sideways, but REALLY powerful once you get the hang of combining offset and magic wand.

For example:

Soffit/overhangs around a building
Footings/foundations offset from each side of foundation walls
Bulkheads around a room perimeter

Re: Offseting Tips

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 21:25:22 GMT

There is also the new pet palette icon for offsetting concentric arcs. I've just been working on some parking and sidewalks and it comes in very handy.

Re: Offseting Tips

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 13:09:27 GMT

Have a look at the previous lively discussion on this hot topic (last entry: 11th Feb) There were 43 replies and 2681 views! (Sorry I don't know how to insert a link.)

It's the 5 steps that get me. Personally I always use Autocad for site layouts. If you set up your road centre lines as polylines, a single click gets you all the kerb lines, and one more click all the footpaths.

Re: Offseting Tips

James Murray — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 14:39:22 GMT

TomWaltz wrote:
The technique is a little sideways, but REALLY powerful once you get the hang of combining offset and magic wand.

For example:
Soffit/overhangs around a building
Footings/foundations offset from each side of foundation walls
Bulkheads around a room perimeter

Excellent tip.

But I am sometimes annoyed by the fact that offset w/ magic wand picks up all the connected elements. I would like control over this behavior; the ability to magic-wand a line by itself. Maybe the offset-all functionality could depend on the originals being grouped.

This behavior of offset means I've never really developed the habit; I usually drag a copy instead. (Starting AC in the pre-offset days is part of it.) For polygons, copy then resize. For arcs, copy and resize w/ the palette button, often manually editing the radius in the R field.

Also, you can't use offset to cut a hole in a selected polygon.