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'Snap from' functionality?


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In ACAD there is a 'snap from' mode where you click on a snappable point (end point, midpoint, etc) and then move your mouse in the direction required.

 

If you are using the functionality to move a rectangle (r1) an exact distance, say 6.125", from the corner of another rectangle (r2), you would do the following.

Click on a snap point on r1, select "snap from" and click on a snap point of r2, move the cursor in the desired direction, and type in the distance desired, say 6".

r1 is now moved to this exact specified point, 6.125" in the direction specified, off the snapped to object.

 

I'm not finding the workflow to do this in VW?

If I grab a move corner of R1 and hover over the corner of R2 to activate the smart point I can move/align R1 in relation to R2. But if I TAB and type 6" in the L field and hit enter, R1 moves 6" from it's own corner.

 

If i want to move a rectangle (R1) exactly 6" for the left most corner of another rectangle (R2), how do I go about doing this?

 

Thank for helping out a new VW user!

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Take a look at the help for "Floating Datum".

 

Basically, if you hover your Mouse over a snap point for a couple of seconds you will get a Circle around that point (and if you have the Screen Hints turned on) the word datum next to it. That will temporarily make all of the data displays use that point as the local 0,0 point. Hit the tab key to open the Floating Data Bar and you can type in the values that you want to offset from that point.

 

You can also force the Datum to set with the "G" key [if you have not changed your keyboard mapping ;-) ]

 

@SMannVW mentioned learning about snapping the the other thread. Very valuable advice.

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Not what I am seeing.

 

Try this:  Draw a line. With the line tool still selection hover over the end point until you get the Datum. Hit Tab once to open the Floating Data Bar. The X & Y values should show you the offset of the mouse pointer from the Datum Point.

 

1. Make sure you actually wait for the black circle Datum point not just the red square smart snap.

2. Check you Snapping Preferences: Smart Point pane. Make sure you have the Set Datum if the mouse stops for X seconds.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

@Pat Stanford  I'm back with another question...

 

 

I've found the Datum Point very helpful (Thank you for your clear directions!) but only for placing/moving objects.

I don't seem to be able to use it for editing object points (ie midpoint or endpoint).

 

What I'm trying to do in this instance is to move the northern corner of an existing rectangle "A" down 6" from the northern edge of another exiting rectangle "B".

workflow:

  • So I'm double clicking on "A" to open the reshape tool,
  • selecting the corner endpoint,
  • hovering over "B" corner and following the smart point guild lines to the intersection,
  • hitting 'G' (i find this easier that hovering for 2 sec)
  • hitting TAB to enter my desired 6" increment for "L distance"

and yet the TABed "L distance" is still based off of the endpoints original position instead of the Datum Point position.

  •       see attached image shows 1'9.091" measured from endpoint origin not datum point

 

In this case I achieved my desired results by 

  • moving the endpoint to the smart intersection
  • then moved it a second time down 6"

This works fine but I can't help but think I will find an instance where this would be a problem.

move point from datum.png

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Keep tabbing my friend. The attached video shows how I did what I think you want. 

 

Basically, I went into reshape mode and then got a Datum at the end of the line. By hitting tab multiple times, eventually I got the fields X and Y to display. By default these are at zero because they are relative to the datum point. I entered -2' into the Y field and hit enter. This got me the horizontal reference line. I then held down the shift key to constrain the movement of the cursor relative to the original point to vertical/horizontal. I was then able to snap to the horizontal reference line at the point vertical to the original corner point.

 

HTH

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I'm back again!

 

Trying to 'snap from' while using the 'push/pull' tool...

 

So far this is what I've got:

  • select a face I want to edit/move.
  • move cursor to the 'reference face' and hover/hit 'G' to set a datum point (This does not seem to zero out - maybe a datum is not even useful in this workflow. Although it does 'lock' the distance measurement).
  • Hit tab
  • Hit the right arrow to deselect the 'distance' amount.
  • Hit '-' (or '+' depending on direction)
  • enter the offset distance I want.
  • double tap the enter key.

 

yikes - that's a lot of clicking!

Am I going about this wrong?

 

Maybe I've just become dependent on working/dimensioning from known points and should 'think different' in VW?

 

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, hollister design Studio said:

 

Maybe I've just become dependent on working/dimensioning from known points and should 'think different' in VW?

VW started as MiniCAD a long time ago (mid to late 1980's) and was Mac only until MiniCAD 6 I think, so it's  like Apple in that regard which once had the slogan "Think Differently". So yes, you have to think differently 😁

 

Joking aside, the way VW works is actually not too different from an operations perspective for tools (e.g. extrusions work the same way) but the user interface definitely is different. Learning the keyboard shortcuts does help but there are still to many clicks to be done.

 

The fundamental things that most AutoCAD users need to get used to is the use of classes/layers and document scale. The latter is something that baffled me for a while as a former AutoCAD users when I just started to use MiniCAD 5  but now I wish the DWG world had something similar, as well as the classes/layer functionality instead of having to use xrefs (I basically dropped AutoCAD for BricsCAD some 7 years ago  and cut  all AutoCAD ties 4 or 5 years ago). The rest is a matter of getting used to the user interface.

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