Polyline reshape tools

[Matt D]

Dear All...

Just a quick one! Can anyone tell me if it is possible to place the polyline reshape tools, which are embedded in the top right of the window, into their tool palate that I can then move around?

Would be good to know how this is possible, if at all.

Many thanks

Matt

[jan15]

Yes, any tool can be put on any palette.

Pull down File > Workspaces > Workspace Editor, then maybe "Edit a copy of the current workspace" (and assign a name to your custom workspace).

Then go to the Tools tab. All available tools are shown in the left window, and the ones in your workspace are shown on the right. There's also a tab for Menu Commands, with the same format.

Drag from left to right, or delete unwanted tools or commands on the right. Dragging a tool slightly more to the right can make it a sub-tool of the one above.

You can also click at the right end of a tool line to assign a keyboard shortcut to it, with or without modifier keys as per the checked box at the bottom of the window.

Also, it sounds like your polyline reshape tools are on a docked palette, which you should be able to undock just by grabbing it at the top and dragging it. And there's a "VectorWorks Preference" for enabling or disabling palette docking, in case you never want to use it.

[Matt D]

Thank you, but I can't find the polygon modifiers anywhere. I mean the secondary tools that come up after the polygon reshape tool has been selected. I am using an Apple machine and the palettes work differently. I cannot get these tools out of the top of the window. Any suggestions? anyone?

[eas]

Matt D,

I think you are talking about the mode bar? Although on my Apple machine nothing is embedded at the top right but rather the top left.

The mode bar is where you can select add vertex or subtract vertex, for example.

I don't know of a way to get things out of the mode bar, but you can rotate through the options using the U key. Like the tab key for the data display bar.

[jan15]

Right. We can't customize the modes of a tool. This has long been a sore point. Often the mode that comes up first is one that I never use. And if you want to bounce back and forth between one tool and two different modes of another tool, you're out of luck.

The worst example of this was the old Extend tool, dropped after version 8. The first mode was useless, and maybe that's why the tool was dropped. But the second mode was a great tool that's much missed. It extended any clicked object to the selected object, even when the selected object was off-screen. There've been many complaints in the forum about that being dropped, but nobody at NNA understands what we're talking about. They keep trying to tell us that a new tool does the same thing. Perhaps the new tool does what the first mode of the Extend tool did (which was not much), but it doesn't do what the second mode of the Extend tool did.

[Matt D]

eas,

Sorry, you're right, it is top left. thanks for the tip regarding rotating through the options which at least will save time rather than having to go there with the mouse. On a 30inch screen, it's some distance! :-]

[Matt D]

thanks jan15 - perhaps NNA will sort it! :-{