moving things in 3D, or out in space?

[Christian Fekete]

I am having a lot of troubles moving things in 3D:

I was trying to move a 1 1/2" plate down to the same plate under it. I selected the first plate at the corner, in isometric view, and move the plate to what I thought was the top right corner of the plate below but it ended way of on what seems to be a place that looked like the top right corner but way out in space.

What am I doing wrong, in 2d it works but not in 3D!

[CipesDesign]

Dragging in 3d space, especially in iso or perspective views, is sometimes a wild affair. You might try a) go to a full frontal (or side) view and drag the object while holding the Shift key. Holding the shift key will constrain the movement to vertical or horizontal. Or b) the Move 3d command which allows you to enter exact numbers for X, Y, and Z.

[zoomer]

Dragging in plain 2D views works fine, moving in 2 axis only.

(As opposed to move by points which will jump in 3rd dimension !)

Dragging in a "real" 3D view, like an isometric view works FOR ME too.

It will move in all 3 dimensions from one point exactly to the other point

in XYZ.

If you want to move something in an Isometric view in a 2D way in 1 axis only,

for example snap to an other Z height of a point - not at the same position in top plan :

Pick elements corner to move,

start to drag vertically in Z direction until you see and stay on the blue helper line,

make sure you move on it to a point where no other element is near in snapping distance,

press "T" key, to lock to the Z axis,

then you can snap to any point having the desired Z height,

release mouse button.

This way it will move in Z axis only.

Just be sure when you do things like large zooming or similar that the axis lock stays

locked or you have to repeat the locking again.

As the "T" key is no real lock to one axis but a tool to grab an angle of an elements

as a guide line, you can't lock to one axis until you find a free space without any

other elements in your drawing.

The "T" key is just a little, not so unreliable, workaround for the unreliable SHIFT key

option which will easily fail when you leave the angle too much or there is an other

snapping point too close.

Edited December 27, 2015 by zoomer

[Benson Shaw]

Also

For 3d moves, the drawing's Active Plane setting may need a switch out of Screen Plane.

Before the move action via drag or via Move By Points tool, look at the drawing's Active Plane setting. It's the menu item more or less center of the View Bar. Common settings are Screen, Automatic, Layer

What happens in Screen Plane:

•If menu indicates Screen Plane, the selected object will only move parallel to the screen (this is sometimes an advantage, hence the option). If the view is changed and drawing is still in Screen Plane, objects will move parallel to the screen of this new view.

•After a move in Screen Plane, points or edges of objects in 3 space can look coincident as intended because they align in that particular view. But changing the view, eg with the Flyover tool, may reveal that the objects are separated.

For the 3d move switch the drawing out of Screen Plane mode:

Select the intended tool (eg Selection Tool for drag, or Move by Points Tool for click, click), then pulldown the Active Plane menu and pick Automatic, or Working Plane & Screen Plane, or anything other than Screen Only. Then complete the move action. To check for success, use the Flyover tool to swing around the snap point a bit.

I love the Move by Points tool. It's super for 3d moves.

-B

[zoomer]

^ I think that was what went wrong for Christian.

Normally I have set VW to Layer Plane only so never had that problem.

But I'm not sure if that was so wise so currently switched to Layer+Screen Plane.

I hope that will allow my to create radial sweeps not only on Layer Plane but also

in Front or Side Views ???

And I hate move by point tool.

For me it is the poorest implementation that I have ever experienced.

[mjm]

>And I hate move by point tool.

>For me it is the poorest implementation that I have ever experienced.

Details Zoomer, please. I use Move by Points heavily and am interested to hear how it is crippled/could be improved.

thanks man

[zoomer]

Happy New Year everyone ...

The comfortable way I was used to work with Copy/Move Tools since 20 Years !!!

1.

There are 2 Tool(icon)s, one for Move (by points) and one for Copy (by points)

which allows you to switch between moving and copying without loosing

you multiplicator value.

2.

You will never have that strange behavior that a forgotten, or one that you want

to keep, Multiplier gives you a moved first element + additional copies.

3.

You will reach these, and other basic commands, easily from RMB Context Menu

4.

A "short" RMB click will bring you instantly back to Selection Tool which is much

faster than Double ESCaping (!?) or search for the X key.

BTW, that is the case for any Tool.

5.

It goes like this :

Either click the first Snap Point of a Selection to start from, or,

Activate the Move/Copy Tool and activate any element directly at the first Snap Point,

when there wasn't any Selection, for starting.

(No SHIFT key needed)

6.

For every additional Move/Copy, of course you don't need a new start point again !!!

Just another click to give the next position.

I think it is very obvious that this way is much faster when you want to distribute

some Trees in your garden or copy a Door Handle from Door to Door ...

Repeat as long as you want until you are finished.

Abort and reactivate by 2 "short" RMB clicks if you need a different new starting

point for the same selected element in a special situation.

7.

The last Distance used to copy/move was kept as a snap point.

So if you want to Copy an Element in one direction only 2-8 times, you won't start

an Array Tool or interrupt to set a Multiplier, you just go on pointing you cursor near

of that snap option, click, go on, click, go ..., Boom. Done.

8.

I had a reliable Lock to snap to 1 Axis only

9.

I had a reliable and permanent 2,5D option by locking the 3rd or "Z" axis

("Sticky Z")

10.

I could Rotate/Align my local Workplane instantly by Short Cuts :

T (Top), F (Front) and S (Side) - originated always from the last snap point

11.

VW's G-point that never works for me was former an "O" (Origin) key for me,

that when you start any command from a start Origin to a distance in any direction,

either by a snap or a numerically, to absolutely, instantly and reliably set back to 0,0,0

at that position.

For example :

Pick element vertex on start point to select element + set start point + start translation,

Lock to 1 (!) Axis only and snap to any other element at any (unknown) position to set a

distance in X direction only, Press "O" to reset Origin and may be add another 5,20 m from there,

Press "O" to reset Origin and may be add another 2,40 m in Y direction.

(And may be press "S" to rotate Workplane to Side to go on another 3,70 m in Z Height)

[AlanW]

As long as you are in layer plane and unified view and all the correct snaps on on you should not have any issues.

I always move in 3d especially on very complicated 3d drawings.

[zoomer]

I don't get it to work.

Move by Points for me always jumps in 3rd Dimension in Front/Left/.../Iso View.

Just like the Tape measure Tool.

"Ignore non Planar Snaps" is ignored ?

[AlanW]

Attached is a test file and my setting. You should see the snaps as in the image and if you do you can drag items from any point to any point and it snaps.

I never use perspective view to work in 3D as I find hard to control the movement of items so its always Projection/orthogonal view and yes things will move to strange spots if you try to move across any axis without having a snap to location. I will always move an object just a short distance along an axis in 3d then snap it back to the desired snap location.

I will use plan and elevation to move things also but if i am putting an object together 3d snapping works well in rojection/orthogonal I use the key pad 1,3,7&9.

HTH

Edited January 8, 2016 by Alan Woodwell