Tracker in 10

[David Collins]

quoting from a thread on the new align tool

Matthew wrote:
.... But I still haven't given up the control and coordinates palettes, and I not sure that I will any time soon. They still do things that I haven't found substitutes for in the guidelines and tracker.

I'm puzzling over this myself. I thought the point of the tracker was to eliminate the coordinate box. I'm for anything that reduces the stuff on the screen to a minimum. I've found shortcuts for most of the other things on the coordinate box, but it seems the only way to switch from absolute to relative coordinates in the tracker is to go deep into Work Environment menus and uncheck a box. That's a deal killer for me. So I've kept the coordinate box, but then why have the tracker? Is there a shortcut I'm missing here?

[Anonymous]

AFAIK you are right. The tracker is still not a full replacement for the coordinates palette. If it really could do all the same things only easier, I would be happy to switch, but as I said I'm keeping the coordinates palette for now. What I'm not sure of yet is whether the two can peacefully coexist.

[David Maudlin]

David wrote:
I thought the point of the tracker was to eliminate the coordinate box.

David:

I have kept both. I still use the Coordinates palettes for checking measurements by moving the origin (the Measure tool didn't seem to simplify this function). With the Tracker, I like being able to see the X, Y, A and R information where I am working on screen, rather than looking down to the Coordinates palettes as I type in dimensions. And since I have also kept the Control palette, having both in line at the bottom of the screen doesn't give up much real estate.

My 2 cents.

David

[Chazz]

Agreed. Both are useful and neither replaces the other. I find this software almost unusable on a single screen. I use AC on my laptop a little but it's not a place I'd want to do serious work.

[David Collins]

David wrote:
but it seems the only way to switch from absolute to relative coordinates in the tracker is to go deep into Work Environment menus

FWIW, I've just found a keyboard shortcut that toggles the tracker between absolute and relative coordinates. In the keyboard shortcuts menu, put the available commands in alphabetical order and look for "Relative coordinates in tracker."

[Anonymous]

David wrote:
FWIW, I've just found a keyboard shortcut that toggles the tracker between absolute and relative coordinates. In the keyboard shortcuts menu, put the available commands in alphabetical order and look for "Relative coordinates in tracker."

......or you could have just told everyone what it was.....

(p.s. I don't know, 10 arrives June 12 here).

[Anonymous]

s2art wrote:

David wrote:
FWIW, I've just found a keyboard shortcut that toggles the tracker between absolute and relative coordinates. In the keyboard shortcuts menu, put the available commands in alphabetical order and look for "Relative coordinates in tracker."

......or you could have just told everyone what it was.....

(p.s. I don't know, 10 arrives June 12 here).

It doesn't have one by default. You have to do it yourself.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, thought that when he said he "found" one, it was existing, not that he created it himself.

[Anonymous]

Matthew wrote:
AFAIK you are right. The tracker is still not a full replacement for the coordinates palette. If it really could do all the same things only easier, I would be happy to switch, but as I said I'm keeping the coordinates palette for now. What I'm not sure of yet is whether the two can peacefully coexist.

I had some funny issues when using surveyor units and the tracker was incorrectly entering the angles. I had to physically click in the coordinates box to get the angles entered correctly. I need to do some mores testing to see if it is a persistent problem...

[SeaGeoff]

For me the sweet spot is keeping both open and setting them to be complimentary. Set the tracker options to be relative, no direct input (evil!), no labels (smaller), and on for editing only (not always on, which is annoying). Do not select the coordinate shortcuts prefer tracker option, so x,y,r,a go to the coordinates box as always. Set the Coordinates box to Absolute. Now both relative and absolute values can be used at any time. Use the traditional shortcuts to enter absolute (coordinate box) values, use the Tab key to enter relative (tracker) values.

Another notable difference is the way coordinate lock works. For example, opt-r locks the length of a new wall to the r field value. But hitting the little target in the Tracker places a guide line.