AC7 - Switching to Clockwise

[Anonymous]

I am entering line coordinates into AC7 The angle vectors are referenced in a clockwise direction. The “a” in the tool box goes in CCW direction. Can this be switched? While typing this message I thought of just entering the angles as “negatives”. Still can this direction be change somewhere in preferences?

[David Larrew]

Jay,

This is one for the wish list. Any CAD program should allow the user to control the directional vector coordinate angle (CW - CCW and CCW - CW). For now, it looks like you are stuck typing the direction correction in the "a" field (+/-) as you've discovered.

[Djordje]

David wrote:
Any CAD program should allow the user to control the directional vector coordinate angle (CW - CCW and CCW - CW).

Hm ... any CAD user shoudl know that mathematically positive direction is CCW; I prefer that to setting as preference.

Than again ... this is just IMHO

[Anonymous]

Yes, Using the "-" sign to enter CCW directions is not a problem (at least when I remember to do it). Since my survey instument can display the horizontal directions in either CW or CCW, I will try and remember to set it to CCW so that I don't have to remember to "add" the "-" when inputting in AC.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Tip for diligence challenged (-lazy) people:

If you have wrong numbers (CW instead of CCW), just go ahead and enter the geometry.

Don't deal with the "-" just now.

When finished just flip (mirror) the whole polygon around a vertical line starting from the first point. presto.

Generally:

Speaking from tech support and training experience I don't think new options for things that otherwise easy to rectify in ArchiCAD should be introduced.

Afterall there are coordinate conventions where the 0,0 is in the top left corner of the screen and y axis points down. And it would be mathematically easy to deal with a "left handed" system (x-right, y -up,z down), but it would be two more things to check when you try to figure out what the other party is telling you.

IMHO importing survey tabular text data should be either a custom GDL part or part of an API tool - instead of manually entering the numbers (flipping one here and there...)

[Djordje]

Ferenc wrote:
IMHO importing survey tabular text data should be either a custom GDL part or part of an API tool - instead of manually entering the numbers (flipping one here and there...)

ArchiTerra.

[David Larrew]

I disagree with Ferenc... It only needs to be a preference, and most people who don't do land surveys or civil work wouldn't need to know or learn about the directional option.

Along this same topic...

It sure would be nice if we could have the ability to save and recall different User Origins and Skewed Grids. Something like AutoCAD's UCS. I might add that AutoCAD's UCS is 3-dimensional.

I think I will add this to the Wishlist section.

[vfrontiers]

Hold the phone! What will happen to ALL of the existing GDL scripted parts that use the old convention? If preference govern, things will go crazy!

David wrote:
I disagree with Ferenc... It only needs to be a preference,
I think I will add this to the Wishlist section.

[David Larrew]

Thats the joy of GDL GLOBAL variables - As long as GS ties the SYMB_ROTANGLE to the global "UCS" (pardon my French) set in the preferences.

[Anonymous]

There is already a preference for surveyor's units (which can be a bit mind boggling if you don't know how they work) so it shouldn't be a real problem to have other angle measure prefs. (A navigator's setting might be usefull with a 0.0 North and CW rotation.)

There would be no more problem for library parts than is caused by imperial working units, the internal values would always be metric and 0.0 on the x-axis with CCW rotation.