Tool changes from 8.1 to 17 (what happened to the shortcuts?

[Anonymous]

I just upgraded from Version 8.1 to 17. (Big leap, yes, I know, but it suited me well for 10+ years.) At this point I'm sorry I had to upgrade. For example, what happened to those handy shortcuts for navigating the stories (command-6 to go up a story; command-5 to go down; command-8 to hide or reveal the ghost story; command-4 to show story manager window, etc)? Is there some substitute or are they gone?
If there are no shortcuts how do we hide/reveal the ghost story w/ Version 17, anyhow?

[Anonymous]

At the expense of being a pest I have another issue. This one is truly a work-stopper. In 8.1, if I wanted to draw a 2-ft long line perpendicular to, and below, a horizontal line I had already drawn I could do it by placing the cursor at any given point on that line, followed by these commands:
A 270 degrees
R 2'

Now whey I try to execute the above this is what happens: The windows shows 270 degrees but then as soon as I enter the "R" value a so-called "Tracker Line" (heavy dashed format) at a default angle of 16.28 degrees appears on the page and the 2-foot line I want to execute simply extends 2 feet in the zero angle direction.

Same thing happens when I attempt to "drag a copy" of the horizontal line 2 feet in the 270 degree direction: the "Tracker Line" suddenly appears at 16.28 degrees from horizontal.

What's up with that?

[Laszlo Nagy]

Could you post a screenshot? I am not even sure that thing you call a Tracker Line is called that. I think you may be talking about a Guide Line.

[Anonymous]

Hello Laszio
The PDF labeled "Tracker Line-16.28 degrees" is a representation of what I described in the previous email. The "tracker line" does would not show up in a PDF so I over-drew it w/ the red dashed line. The "tracker line" appeared on the screen as a light brown heavy and short dashed line~same as in the JPG "PHOTO-Tracker Line." But I have not been able to duplicate precisely what's depicted in the PDF ~probably because I monkeyed around with some of the setting hoping to solve the problem in a hit and miss fashion. Nevertheless I still am not able to project lines from the location of the cursor at the angle and and distance I desire. In sum, I'm not able to draw (except by employing a convoluted work-around using circles to determine begging and end point of every line).

I am attaching a series of screen shots ~produced w/ a digital camera because it's not possible to take a screen shot of the information boxes.
First off, my objective is to draw a 2-foot-long line perpendicular to and downward from right end point of the 3-foot long horizontal line. But I can never get there ~using the procedure of 8.1, as illustrated by the following series of screen shots.
The numbered the photos correspond to the following actions (assume north is up):
1. Arrow tool is at east end point of a 3-ft horizontal line whose west end coincides with the Origin
2. keystroke: "A"
3. enter numeric value "270"
4. keystroke: "R" NOTE: Angle is involuntarily changed from 270 to 180 degrees; a new line has been subtended at an angle of 225 deg from the beginning point; an a vertical dashed "tracking line" running through the Origin has suddenly appeared.
5. The cursor is now at the end of a newly drawn line whose end points are our beginning point an a point 2 feet south of the Origin (see photo #6).
Not at all the line I am trying to execute.
Briefly I thought that if there were some way to make the program think that my starting point is the Origin I could make it work. To test this notion I tried drawing the same 2 ft line with the beginning withe the Origin as the starting point. I won't burden you the "screen shots" but I can tell you that the result was a 2 ft line on a zero degree heading from the origin.
So there you have it....what can you tell me?

P.S. I see just now that a max of 1 attachment is allowed in this forum. So the others will have to follow one by one.

[Anonymous]

Cannot upload the 6 screen shots, apparently because they exceed the pixel width and height limits.

[Laszlo Nagy]

I think you are talking about Guide Lines.
What happens if you right-click the Guide Line and select the "Remove all Guide Lines" command of the context menu.
Can you then perform the action as expected?

[Anonymous]

I don't think the guidelines are interfering with the operation I want to perform. But I'll try that & let you know.

[Anonymous]

No, that didn't help.
I am simply trying to project a line (or it could be an object or the first leg of a multi-line or a fill) for a distance 2 feet in the "southward" direction from the point where I placed the arrow tool.
In 8.1 this was a very handy operation and simple to execute with these key strokes:
A (for angle)
followed by the point of compass direction from the arrow tool IN DEGREES (based on the X, Y grid where due east is 0 degrees, north is 90 degrees, etc) ~~In the case, 270 degrees
R for distance in the selected heading
numeric value of the distance (in this case 2 feet)
In sum, the strokes looked like this:
A 270 R 2' and I would have been able to draw the line.
However NOW in v17 what happens is this:
With keystroke "A" the information box pops up with Angle active and reading 0.000 degrees
With keystrokes "270" 270 is actually entered in Angle window
BUT as soon as I keystroke "R" to enter the distance the Angle defaults to 0.0000 degrees.
So the program will let me draw a line only the 0.0000 degree direction (due east from the point I have selected.
Bottom line: I really don't care about the guide line. What I care about is being able to simply be able to draw a line where I want it. As it is I cannot perform the basic task of drawing simple lines. So what V17 procedure replaced the V8.1 procedure I described above? The 8.1 procedure was so logical and elegant in its simplicity I can't imagine it being done away with. Is there perhaps a simple matter of adjusting a setting somewhere that would prevent the program from defaulting to the 0.0000 degree direction after I tell the program what direction I want to head?

[David Maudlin]

Randall:

What happens if you reverse the order of the commands? R 2, A 270. In this case I would use the "Y" coordinate: Y 2-- (the first "-" is the separator between feet & inches, the second for the negative direction).

You should add a Signature to your Profile (click the Profile button near the top of this page) with your ArchiCAD version and operating system (see mine for an example) for more accurate help in this forum.

David

[Anonymous]

Hey, David, thank you, thank you. That did it! No negative indicator required, however.
I'm back in business!

BTW, I could find figure out how to add my signature.

[Anonymous]

Randall wrote:
...BTW, I could find figure out how to add my signature.

In Profile, link above