Inst. Insert Tool w/Snap to Grid

[Haich]

I've been having a problem with inserting instuments using Snap to Grid when the drawing origin has been moved. My preferred way of laying intruments in is to have a 18" Snap Grid & then moving the drawing Origin to the intersection of my hanging position & the Centerline- this gives nice, neat fixtures on 18" centers... blah blah blah. When I use the instrument insert tool in this situation, it appears to momentarily shift the grid back to the "world" origin, insert the fixture, & then shift the grid back to the offset origin. The problem is, the instrument gets inserted "snapped" to the "world" origin not to the offset one. In addition, after an insert the cursor gets "out of whack" and no longer snaps to either snap grid.

The (hopefully temporary) workaround I've come up with for this is to insert fixtures with the 2d Symbol Tool & then convert them to fixtures & then assign the Label Legend. Everything works fine this way, but (obviously) takes twice the time & has the further disadvantage of not automatically assigning the hanging position to the fixture.

Is there some way I can avoid this behavior when using the Inst. Insert tool?

[kmoore1]

quote:

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Originally posted by Haich:

I've been having a problem with inserting instuments using Snap to Grid ..<Snip>..

The (hopefully temporary) workaround ..<Snip>.. (obviously) takes twice the time & has the further disadvantage of not automatically assigning the hanging position to the fixture.

Is there some way I can avoid this behavior when using the Inst. Insert tool?

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I've just entered this as a bug. It should be fixed in the next release of SpotLight. Unfortunately I don't have a good timeframe for when that will be at this point.

For now, one option is to turn off the grid snap and insert the instruments "haphazardly". Then use the align and distrubute tool to place them on 18" centers.

You might also try creating a grid of intersecting lines on 18" centers and grouping them together. Turn off snap to grid and turn on object snap. Now you've created your own "snap grid" which should give you your 18" spacing. You might have to send it behind your lighting positions in order to have the instrument pick up the lighting position, as the pick point may find the grid before it finds the lighting position. You can then move this grid around as if it were your user origin.

HTH

PS. Thank you for the excellent and concise description of this problem. It made diagnosing the problem much quicker and easier. I really do appreciate it.

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Kevin Moore

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Product Manager

VectorWorks SpotLight

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[apdavies]

Hi, I have a solution which may make plots more readable anyway.

I have been placing small ticks on my plots at 18" centres for while (arranying them from the centre line). With snap to object switched on the blocks should snap to those ticks and positions, any which are not covered by the instruments indicate to the ME how many spaces to leave on the pipe before the next instrument.

Hope this helps

Paul.