topic Re: Offsetting Walls in Modeling

Offsetting Walls

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 10:38:40 GMT

Hi Im new to the forum but very interested!

Can anyone tell me how can you offset a wall from any given point. For example if I draw a rectangle room of 10 x 5 metres how can I start a new wall say 3 metres on the 10 metre length.

Is there an offset tool, or a jump tool from a snap point in the drawing?

Please help!

Re: Offsetting Walls

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 17:38:11 GMT

steveacad wrote:
Hi Im new to the forum but very interested!

Can anyone tell me how can you offset a wall from any given point. For example if I draw a rectangle room of 10 x 5 metres how can I start a new wall say 3 metres on the 10 metre length.

Is there an offset tool, or a jump tool from a snap point in the drawing?

Please help!

You can drag a copy of your wall at the required distance (you can do that by selecting the wall, pressing CTRL+SHIFT+D (that's the shortcut for "drag a copy" command) and dragging the wall at the required distance). To be more specific, in your case, select the wall, press CTRL+SHIFT+D, drag it (after you begin to drag it, hold down the SHIFT key (if you want to drag it horizontally or vertically) and press the "R" key (pressing the "R" key enables you to enter a specific value for the distance - 3m in your case).

Another way (but not as fast) would be to press the "O" key (which enables the "offset" mode), select the "Wall" tool, press and hold down the "Space" bar (enables "Magic Wand") and click on the wall you want to offset. Now drag it (hold down the "SHIFT" key, press "R" and enter the desired offset value (3))

Re: Offsetting Walls

Richard Morrison — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 19:10:11 GMT

That's a lot of keyboarding! Another way to copy a wall is just to hover over the edge of the wall until it highlights then left-click drag it while clicking the CTRL key. (I have CTRL mapped to a mouse thumb button) Then let the guidelines appear and while on the correct guideline, type 3 and ENTER. (Tracker should be on.)

To just move the cursor to a new location, say 3 meters to the right of a wall edge, you can move the cursor to the wall edge and type X3+ . These shortcuts should be in the Help section.

Re: Offsetting Walls

Djordje — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:34:25 GMT

steveacad wrote:
Is there an offset tool, or a jump tool from a snap point in the drawing?

Offset is very much there.

If you want to start anything at a distance from an existing point, place the cursor there, type xVALUE+, press enter and the cursor will jump the VALUE to the right. You can also use yVALUE+, or VALUE-. Can be also used for Z coordinate in 3D, and also for R.

Coordinate management and input is still a weak point in training, huh?

Re: Offsetting Walls

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 09:57:08 GMT

Thanks guys a lot! I just couldnt figure out how to do it!

Cheers

Re: Offsetting Walls

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:51:00 GMT

is there a way to offset a line (say in a drafting view?) I want to offset a line that is drawn at an angle say 32 degrees. Is there a way to do this? Thanks.

Re: Offsetting Walls

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:54:05 GMT

As above, but for a single line (or wall or whatever) what I do is "drag a copy", pick a starting point next to the line you are copying, move perpendicular to the line and when you get the perpendicular cursor start typing your distance (with Tracker on). Very quick, and almost foolproof. Another way is to use guidelines, but this can take a little longer as you wait for them to appear. Play with the different techniques and see which you prefer.

Re: Offsetting Walls

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:46:26 GMT

It's also handy to use "Multiply" if you want to offset multiple times the same distance. Just right click the wall, line etc., click multiply, spread and put in the distance you want to offset. I like this because unlike in Autocad you don't have to click something over and over to get multiple copies of it. It's also easier than "Array". You click once and drag your cursor in the direction you want to offset.

Re: Offsetting Walls

Stress Co_ — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 03:44:13 GMT

pencrush wrote:
is there a way to offset a line (say in a drafting view?) I want to offset a line that is drawn at an angle say 32 degrees. Is there a way to do this? Thanks.

Use the offset button (in the control box pallette) .... Click the button... "space-click" (magic wand) the line you want to offset from... drag the desired distance (or "R" and type distance)

Re: Offsetting Walls

Rex Maximilian — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:16:05 GMT

Djordje wrote:
steveacad wrote:
Is there an offset tool, or a jump tool from a snap point in the drawing?
If you want to start anything at a distance from an existing point, place the cursor there, type xVALUE+, press enter and the cursor will jump the VALUE to the right. You can also use yVALUE+, or VALUE-. Can be also used for Z coordinate in 3D, and also for R.

Djordje, you can't use VALUE-. It has to be -VALUE+. Unless I'm seriously missing some setting to allow this.

To the original poster. If you wanted another wall to be offset 3m to the right of your upper-right wall corner, simply "float" your cursor over the spot until you get the check mark, type x so the field highlights, then while the current x position is highlighted, type 3+. This will ADD 3m (or feet) to your current x position. Click (or Enter) and draw!

If you wanted it to be 3m to the left of the point, then -3+ would be the data to type. 3m up is y, then 3+, 3m down is y, then -3+. This also works in the z field, as well as a, r, and n.

Re: Offsetting Walls

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:29:32 GMT

Rex

Using value- works for me. Don't know what the setting might be that prevents it, unless its a metric vs imperial thing?

Re: Offsetting Walls

Rex Maximilian — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 09:12:38 GMT

s2art wrote:
Rex

Using value- works for me. Don't know what the setting might be that prevents it, unless its a metric vs imperial thing?

Hmmm, let me check that out. I tried it just before posting to make sure I wasn't speaking erroneously and it did NOT work. But, I will try the metric.

Nope. Didn't work. What it does for me is absolute from 0,0 values, not relative to the point.

Interesting.

Re: Offsetting Walls

Djordje — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 16:07:33 GMT

Rex wrote:
Djordje wrote:
steveacad wrote:
Is there an offset tool, or a jump tool from a snap point in the drawing?
If you want to start anything at a distance from an existing point, place the cursor there, type xVALUE+, press enter and the cursor will jump the VALUE to the right. You can also use yVALUE+, or VALUE-. Can be also used for Z coordinate in 3D, and also for R.
Djordje, you can't use VALUE-. It has to be -VALUE+. Unless I'm seriously missing some setting to allow this.

I am not using Imperial units. So in the Metric world, VALUE + works as well as VALUE -. If you have X-Y in Imperial, it means XfeetYinches, therefore ...

Would it not be high time that the US stopped preserving the British monarchy legacy? 😉 To paraphrase DNC, even they accepted the metric system, even if it is French! 😉

Re: Offsetting Walls

Rex Maximilian — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:10:02 GMT

Djordje wrote:
Would it not be high time that the US stopped preserving the British monarchy legacy? 😉 To paraphrase DNC, even they accepted the metric system, even if it is French! 😉

Dude, you are preaching to the choir! One day in 7th grade math class, back in the '70s, our teacher changed the lesson plans and gave us a long speech about how the US was converting to metric, and that by the time we graduated, "miles, inches, pounds, etc." would be a memory... Nope.

I think Reagan killed it when he took office. At least that was the reason I heard.

I'm guessing almost every US designer, architect and engineer would welcome such a change. Using a base 12 measuring system in a base 10 world really sucks.

Re: Offsetting Walls

__archiben — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:04:53 GMT

uhh. really?

Rex wrote:
If you wanted it to be 3m to the left of the point, then -3+ would be the data to type ...

x 3 -

... 3m down is y, then -3+.

y 3 -

surely?

~/ben

Re: Offsetting Walls

Link — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:27:07 GMT

Assuming you have Relative coordinates checked in either the Tracker or the Coordinates Box:

-3 = 3 back from where the edit origin is (which will be where you selected your wall unless you manually changed it mid-operation with Alt+Shift);
-3+ = 3 back from where the cursor is;
3- = 3 back from where the cursor is (as above);

But in imperial, since the - is used to separate feet and fractional inches you'll have to type -- for the last method if that's what your working units are set to.

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Offsetting Walls

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 04:26:11 GMT

Link wrote:
...
But in imperial, since the - is used to separate feet and fractional inches you'll have to type -- for the last method if that's what your working units are set to.

Cheers,
Link.

That's the one I was thinking of, but having never used Imperial units...

... although I'm still 5'7"