vegipete

Greetings All. (I've copied this from the genereal discussion to here to be more on topic.) I decided to write a short Vectorscript routine that requires user interaction with the selection of points using the mouse. The extra trick though that I want to implement involves checking keypresses at the same time. Trouble is, I can't figure out how to have snaps active at the same time, or rather, use a function that responds to snaps. The GetPt and GetPtL procedures stick to snap points during use, but won't let me catch keypresses at the same time. The GetMouse procedure and the MouseDown function let me use the KeyDown function but do not respect snap points. Is there a way to get both snaps and keypresses while moving the mouse around in a Vectorscript? As an example, pressing the 'U' key while using certain tools allows switching amongst tool options. I'm hoping to trap number keys to modify what the tool does on the fly. Ie, I don't want to have to pre-select the result. Thanks for any help or suggestions. P. (Hopefully suggestions are relatively platform and version independent as I have clients using all sorts.)

I didn't find the vectorscript section before when I looked but now I've looked a bit harder and found it. Thanks, I'll ask there. Peter.

Greetings All. I decided to write a short Vectorscript routine that requires user interaction with the selection of points using the mouse. The extra trick though that I want to implement involves checking keypresses at the same time. Trouble is, I can't figure out how to have snaps active at the same time, or rather, use a function that responds to snaps. The GetPt and GetPtL procedures stick to snap points during use, but won't let me catch keypresses at the same time. The GetMouse procedure and the MouseDown function let me use the KeyDown function but do not respect snap points. Is there a way to get both snaps and keypresses while moving the mouse around in a Vectorscript? As an example, pressing the 'U' key while using certain tools allows switching amongst tool options. I'm hoping to trap number keys to modify what the tool does on the fly. Ie, I don't want to have to pre-select the result. Thanks for any help or suggestions. P.

Thanks for the ideas. 1) Ah, now that's cool. Gotta look into that. 2) Well, none of the analytical geometry I've tried over the years has worked well. I currently use a combination of the HCenter(), GetArc() and HPerim() functions, but the results are sloppy. Which is why I'm hoping for a better solution. 3) I suppose the manual method is of interest. I can crunch a VS solution if I really need to, but a manual method would get the most use. I've used other CAD software that had little problem drawing tangent circles based on selecting 3 entities. (This problem originally arose because I was trying to fit a pipe into the cavity formed by a drum pushed into the corner of a box.)

Greetings! I've been using MiniCAD for a while, about 15 years. We never bothered to upgrade past MiniCAD 7 because it does enough for our purposes, which is primarily machine design. I have three things that have annoyed/vexed me for many a year that I'd like to know others' thoughts about. 1) Back around MCv4 or 5, it was possible to specify the exact "Convert to Lines" resolution. Later versions merely allow a choice between "Low, Medium, High and Very High." Is there any way to get back the previous flexibility? 2) Is there a way to get MiniPascal to ACCURATELY report the coordinates of the ends of an arc? 3) Is there a way to draw a circle that is tangent to 3 other entities? For example, draw two intersecting lines and one arbitrary circle. (This circle may or may not be tangent to one or both of the lines, and/or the intersection of the lines may be inside or outside of the circle.) Now, how does one draw the various circles, of which there could be up to 8, that are tangent to both lines and the circle? (Extend the lines as required.) I have never yet figured out a geometrical way of performing this operation in MiniCAD, although an interesting iterative method presented itself. My thanks to creative users who have interesting insights on any of these questions. P.