Wishlist: Ability to lock X or Y axis, not just snap to 90 degrees

[ArchiRes]

Wishlist item: The ability to lock to the X and Y axis when drawing. Right now, the closest Vectorworks gets is snapping to 90 degrees but snapping to a long enough line will cause the drawn line to jump to the opposite axis.

[markdd]

Hold down the T key. That would lock the axis.

[ArchiRes]

I reassigned the T key ages ago as the Text shortcut. I'm in the Workspace Editor dialog box now trying to reassign the key but it doesn't seem to be found. Do you know where to find the tool? I swear I've combed through every tool for "Set Smart Point, Edge, or Vector Snap Lock"

[Tom W.]

3 minutes ago, ArchiRes said:

I reassigned the T key ages ago as the Text shortcut. I'm in the Workspace Editor dialog box now trying to reassign the key but it doesn't seem to be found. Do you know where to find the tool? I swear I've combed through every tool for "Set Smart Point, Edge, or Vector Snap Lock"

 

See 'Keys' tab

[Tobias Kern]

Hi,

the best solution in my option has Sketchup.

For me, never found a solution that comes close to this one. 

Super fast, super easy, super flexible!

 

This would be longtime dream to have this solution in VW.

 

Please see the video.

 

 

  

[ArchiRes]

23 hours ago, Tom W. said:

See 'Keys' tab

 

Thanks. Reassigned the key but it does not work correctly per my first post. Still wishing for that feature to be added!

[markdd]

18 minutes ago, ArchiRes said:

Thanks. Reassigned the key but it does not work correctly per my first post. Still wishing for that feature to be added!

The press on the T key works fine for me. Can you be more specific about what you are looking for then? Are you trying to emulate something that another CAD program has that you are missing? Are you needing to hold a snap at any angle or just the 90° X and Y axes?

[ArchiRes]

20 minutes ago, markdd said:

The press on the T key works fine for me. Can you be more specific about what you are looking for then? Are you trying to emulate something that another CAD program has that you are missing? Are you needing to hold a snap at any angle or just the 90° X and Y axes?

EDIT: Pressing the T key for the Smart Point tool DOES work like I hoped it would. I think the difference was, an inference guide needed to be made first and then the key could be pressed to snap to the X and Y axes. Thanks for yours and Tom W.'s help.

 

My default is to refer to MicroStation which to me was the gold standard of CAD drawing (exclusively because of two-letter keyboard shortcuts) but there if I were wanting to draw a line perfectly horizontal, I'd start my line, hit enter, and forever that line would be locked to the X axis until I clicked to complete the line. Same went for moving selected geometry. It was a really powerful tool for wanting to align geometry that is outside of the current screen.

 

Currently in VW though, if I select a wall or some other geometry and hold shift for instance, it locks to the X axis but only until I get close to the y-axis. Then it snaps to the Y or some other set angle, defeating the purpose of wanting to align the wall to a point somewhere directly above or below the item. My workaround has been to draw a 'guide' line, snap it to that, and then delete the line; making one operation into four steps.

Edited November 9, 2023 by ArchiRes

[markdd]

Now I understand better. Have you tried tabbing into the angle field of the Data Bar when drawing a Line (or wall) and pressing enter? The angle will be held until you click to complete the line.

[ArchiRes]

Just now, markdd said:

Now I understand better. Have you tried tabbing into the angle field of the Data Bar when drawing a Line (or wall) and pressing enter? The angle will be held until you click to complete the line.

Thanks for your help. I realized the T key was the feature I was hoping for. The trick was to guide a line in the intended direction until I got the dashed inference line and THEN press the key. Thanks for your help. How can I mark this post as Solved?

[zoomer]

2 hours ago, ArchiRes said:

My default is to refer to MicroStation which to me was the gold standard of CAD drawing  but there if I were wanting to draw a line perfectly horizontal, I'd start my line, hit enter, and forever that line would be locked to the X axis until I clicked to complete the line. Same went for moving selected geometry. It was a really powerful tool for wanting to align geometry that is outside of the current screen.

 

100 % agree.

I also miss the Accu Draw compass.

(Although it's already more than 15 years since I used it last time 🙂 )

 

 

Quote

Currently in VW though, if I select a wall or some other geometry and hold shift for instance, it locks to the X axis

 

And VW's Wall Tool is the only Tool where SHIFT works locking mostly reliable.

 

 

Quote

but only until I get close to the y-axis. Then it snaps to the Y or some other set angle, defeating the purpose of wanting to align the wall to a point somewhere directly above or below the item.

 

Exactly !

 

Bricscad has a (deprecated ?) ORTHO mode, which basically also locked well, but also

switched axes like VW does - which made it pretty useless.

The more modern POLAR system locks pretty much reliable with Shift, similar to VW's

"T" key .... but also has a tendency to lose locking in some cases.

Thank god there is also the "Manipulator", a 3D Gizmo like in VW's SubD Tool,

but available everywhere. Usually by clicking a bit longer when snapping/selecting.

(You can set the amount of what is longer clicking in milliseconds).

 

AFAIK VW 2024 no offers that Gizmo also for the Manipulation Tool for now,

something I do not often need. But it will come to for more tools over time.

But that may take a few years.

 

 

But overall, VW allows me to easier create much cleaner 2D/3D Geometry than

in the past with Microstation !

No matter if Accu Draw and manual helper lines and grids, at some point I was

slightly off and got ugly numbers. And continuing work and snapping to such

accuracies sooner or later pollutes the whole geometry.

 

This is interesting, because when I worked with Microstation and got DWG exports

from VW users, from architects and worse landscape architects, these were

always inaccurate and I was sure that VW is an App for sketching only and

that landscape architects ignore snapping completely.

(I still do not snap to imported geometry from clients)

But VW allows to show coordinates and angles everywhere, in OIP, status bar,

snapping, .... and when you have multi digit resolution but hide trailing zeros,

this way you will easily notice ugly numbers early, if something went wrong.

Edited November 9, 2023 by zoomer