Dup Along Path not keeping original

[ddcpe]

On the most current build.  In top plan view.  Have a 27ft long line.  Have a 3.5" square centered the end point of the line.  Select both object and choose DAP command.  Choose the line as the path object.  Set the fixed distance to 7ft.  Set to centered on path and 0 end offset.  Choose preview and it looks right.  Click ok and the original goes away.  Is this a bug of some sort?  I thought this sequence of choices would keep the original  but I can't figure out how to make that work.  Below is directly form the Help documentation.  I interpret the underlined phrase to mean that it keeps or puts a copy of the original where it was.  I'm at a loss.

 

Start Offset:  Specifies the distance from the start of the path to the first duplicated object; enter zero to place the first object at the start of the path

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

Can you post the file

 

[Gadzooks]

I think you are placing your object at the End of the line - probably as there is 6' remaining?.

 

DAP duplicates as instructed - the original is then 'lost'. The Original can be some way off from the Path, but I guess you want that extra object for your final layout.

 

Chose 'Show Direction' in the OIP

 

              

 

You can see where the duplications will start...

 

 

Therefore in Preview, you still see the original.

 

 

But you can see the original is then 'lost' when you choose OK

 

 

If you wanted the original to to be kept at the end of the line, copy the object before the DAP process and then Edit > Paste In Place - and there it is!

 

Hope I've interpreted your query correctly. You don't show a signature, but assuming you're on a newer VW than me, my screen grabs/menus may be slightly different to yours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Benson Shaw]

I’m becoming more frequently aware of “missing” features and capabilities in older tools and processes. This DAP is a likely example. Possibly unchanged since mcd? Users and developers realized that an option to preserve the source objects enhances the vwx experience, and the option was built in to new tools.

 

The oft expressed desire to have tool and command updates is understandable. I often share it. I don’t know reasons for lack of such modernization, but I can think of a few possibilities, not all of them cynical:

• Update might break objects when porting between older and newer versions.  Eg some rotation functions use positive values in clockwise direction, others in anti clockwise.  Making all consistent could change rotation dependent objects when porting. 
• Update time and expense conflicts with development of perceived or real need for new stuff. This involves long term planning, marketing, keeping up with competing products, etc. 
• Old tools functions replaced by newer tools and strategies. Eg screen plane
• Specific workarounds are easy enough to discover and implement. Therefore complaints are limited. Eg the DAP - get in habit of duplicating source objects. 
• Incremental improvements to newer functions take precedence.  Eg slab, to aligned slab, to draped slab, concurrent with introduction  of landscape area with components. . .
• lots more i can’t imagine

I’m overall very happy with the constant improvements we do receive. But stand by for all my future gripes.

 

-B

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

There is one improvement I would love to see in duplicate along a path and that is scale duplicates.  Aside from that, it is one of, if not the most critical tools for building complex NURBS objects.  This car below is all Duplicate Along Path, but would have been easier with scale duplicates.  

 

[ddcpe]

Thanks all.  I figured out I had some setting wrong but now I've forgotten what I did.  Oh well.