Daryl Wood Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 How do I move a selected wall by tabbing into the datum offset field and entering a precise distance? Every time I select the wall and begin to move it with the mouse I cannot tab into the offset field and enter a precise dimension without dropping the wall. Just moving the wall and watching the offset field change works only to a preset increment and not necessarily to the offset dimension I need. I am sure I'm missing something. Daryl Quote Link to comment
G_Hannigan Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 When I select a wall, start to drag, I can release & tab to the X,Y Fields (not +-X,Y), enter positions. A dotted cross appears at this location & when I click on it the wall relocates to the new position. You could also use: 1. Use Modify>Move (Control M) 2. OIP. Select Left, Center or Right, enter XY position. George Quote Link to comment
Daryl Wood Posted November 14, 2006 Author Share Posted November 14, 2006 George, thanks for the reply, but I'm still missing something. When you "start to drag", I'm assuming you're holding the left mouse button down, and when you "release" I'm assuming you let go of the left mouse button. When I do that I click-drag the wall and as soon as I let go of the mouse button, the wall stops moving and I cannot get to the offset field to type anything unless I hold the left mouse button down while moving the wall, tab and then type in the offset field with my left hand. If I use the Ctrl-M move command or the nudge command, the walls disconnect. Is there any way to click and release to drag and then tab into the offset field to relocate? Daryl Quote Link to comment
G_Hannigan Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 Daryl, I'm doing what you describe & it works for me. I select a wall, start to drag, stop & release the left button. The Offset field appears. When I hit the Tab key, the field is highlighted & I can enter a value. I haven't used this often. It seems to be sensitive to the timing of the button release after the drag starts. If I perform the select, drag & release QUICKLY - the wall moves to that mouse position. If I PAUSE BRIEFLY before releasing the left button, it allows using the offset field. Odd. If you use the other methods I mentioned, you'll have to rejoin the walls. George Quote Link to comment
Daryl Wood Posted November 14, 2006 Author Share Posted November 14, 2006 Hi George, Boy, do I need to figure this one out. It must be a setting somewhere because I doesn't seem to make a difference how I do it, I cannot get to the offset field without holding down the left mouse button. Thanks for trying. Daryl Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 If you have an existing wall that needs to be changed, select the wall and mouse over the end to move (with the 2D selection tool). Click on the end to move, start to stretch the wall, and glance up at the Data Display bar. Use the delta x and delta y to reference a change in the length of the line. (Press the TAB key to move in and out of the different options. Press ENTER when ready to lock in a length.) When you get the dashed line, click as you mouse over the dashed line. Quote Link to comment
G_Hannigan Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 The only other things I can think of are: 1. Settings in Preferences for Click/Drag or Click/Click. It works both ways for me. 2. Brand of mouse. I'm using a Kensington Expert Trackball. 3. What OS & VW version are you using? George Quote Link to comment
Daryl Wood Posted November 14, 2006 Author Share Posted November 14, 2006 Hi Katie, Thanks for the reply but I'n not trying to lengthen the wall, rather moving it perpendicular to it's length. Daryl Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 I'm sorry - I didn't understand the original question then. Are you just rotating it 90 degrees? Quote Link to comment
Daryl Wood Posted November 14, 2006 Author Share Posted November 14, 2006 Hi Katie, No, I'm not trying to rotate, lengthen or shorten the wall, just trying to get it to move acurately without having to reconnect it to adjacent walls--this seems too time consuming for an application as powerful as VW. I just want to move the wall say 2' to the left by inputing the exact distance in the offset field. I'm fairly new to VW but have had years of experence with many different CAD tools and each has a simple way to move a wall accurately without it disconnecting Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 Okay - I'll get there ... =) When you start to drag the wall to move it's position, hold down the left mouse button. You should then see the offset field in the Data Display Bar. While still holding the mouse button down, enter in an offset value (negative to move to the left or down) and then ENTER. When you click Enter, the wall you started to drag will snap to that distance. You don't get a dashed line like you might expect with other Data Display Bar operations. Simply let go of the left mouse button after pressing ENTER. The wall will adjust to that offset distance. Quote Link to comment
Daryl Wood Posted November 14, 2006 Author Share Posted November 14, 2006 Hi Katie, Yes, you got there. I can make that work but was curious that I had to maintain holding the left mouse button down while imputing in the offset field my offset distance with the left hand. It's just that I'm use to typing with both hands and will have to figure out where the right hand keys are for the left hand to press and to hold the shift key down when I need to input feet and inch (',") symbols. I'll get use to it or figure out some sort of work around. Maybe I can put a clamp on the left mouse button, Ha! Thanks for your help. Daryl Quote Link to comment
CipesDesign Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 Daryl, for myself, and I'm sure many others, working with VW's is a "left hand keyboard, right hand mouse" thing. Here's a couple tricks which may help: 1) In VW's Pref's, in the "EDIT" tab, Uncheck "click drag drawing". Doing this may take a bit of getting used to, but I find it's much faster and I don't have to continue to hold the mouse button down for many common operations. 2) Use "inches" to enter data. Why? Because then you don't need the " symbol, it's implied. HTH's Quote Link to comment
G_Hannigan Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 Daryl, I think it works for me because a selected object will stay "glued" to my pointer if I keep the button depressed for a couple of seconds. It's not a VW thing. It does this in most programs, scroll bars & Windows Explorer. So when I select a wall & start to drag, when I release, VW reacts as though I still had the button depressed. It doesn't release until I click again. Katie, It's a not easy for a righty to hold down the mouse and enter numbers on the keypad. George Quote Link to comment
Daryl Wood Posted November 15, 2006 Author Share Posted November 15, 2006 Hi Peter, I did have the "click drag drawing" checkbox unchecked. As far as (") is concerned, I'm aware of it being implied, I was just making a point at the cumbersomeness of entering 2'3 1/2 might be with the left hand--I'm not very good at it. Maybe I can get real good at never using my right hand on the keyboard in VW. Thanks, Daryl Quote Link to comment
jbrhwy Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 Must be a plot to convert to metric. Quote Link to comment
CipesDesign Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 We can only hope :-) Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 George, I totally understand. Last week I was in Seattle at a builder's trade show. I had to give a presentation in a room on the show floor. You can imagine how loud the builder shows can be! While I had a mic, it wouldn't attach to my shirt well enough that people could hear me over the noise. As a result I had to hold the little mic next to my mouth, use a mouse, and type all at the same time. I had a new found love for clip on microphones that clip on and stay put after that day !! Quote Link to comment
CipesDesign Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 Hi Katie :-) I would have paid some $$ to see that! FWIW, I should probably add that as a left-handed person I am almost entirely ambidextrous so none of this has ever caused me problems. I imagine someday in the future we will be able to simply "think" it and the computer will understand... Quote Link to comment
garch Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 ON MAC: Click and select the wall, start move the wall, hold down space bar and release the mouse while hold down the space bar, now the wall is glued to pointer and you can press the tab key and enter the value in the offset field, with the right or the left hand. Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 (edited) Peter, I don't know if it was worthy of an admission charge, but it was certainly funny. Edited November 15, 2006 by Katie Quote Link to comment
G_Hannigan Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 Seems to work on Win XP too, but I have to release both Space bar & mouse button to access offset field. If I release the mouse button & keep the Space bar down it enters Pan mode. A little hard to test, because I'm able to get it to work without the space bar. Quote Link to comment
Daryl Wood Posted November 15, 2006 Author Share Posted November 15, 2006 Hey Garch, You get today's brownie point. You have the answer. You must have stumbled onto this one. Thank you, Daryl Quote Link to comment
Don@Black Dog Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 What would be really nice would be able to CTL/M, enter the desired offsets, and have them automatically reconnect!(even if it has to ask you yes or no). Quote Link to comment
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