Preview when dragging objects

Question:

How can I see a preview of objects I'm moving when dragging them in PowerCADD v6?

Requirements:

Mac OS^? X 10.2.x and PowerCADD v6.0.4
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS 10.4.4 recommended

Background

Prior to version 6 of PowerCADD (and Mac OS X), you could press the Option key when dragging to move objects. With the Option key pressed you saw a preview of all the selected objects. When the Option key wasn't pressed you saw only a dimmed bounding box defining the extents of the objects selected.

With the introduction of Mac OS X and PowerCADD v6, pressing the Option key when dragging an object will now duplicate the selected object(.

When you have multiple objects selected in PCadd v6 and you begin a drag to move operation, the object you immediately moused down on will be previewed and a dimmed bounding box defining the extents of the remaining selected objects is displayed.

Note:in PowerCADD v6 you also have a preference allowing you to enable or disable High Quality Drags. Typically, High Quality Drags is disabled (unchecked as shown in this screen shot) to help increase application performance by simplifying the image redrawn to screen when moving objects.

What to do

If you'd like to see a preview of all selected objects when performing a move by dragging operation, press the Control Key. When the Control key is pressed, all objects are previewed. When the Control key is released, only the object you immediately pressed the mouse button down upon will be previewed.

This demo movie (296KB download) shows the differences when we did this: (need movie help?)

1. selected all the items to be moved
2. pressed the mouse button down on one of the selected objects and started to drag
3. notice the move cursor appears and only the object we moused down upon is previewed as we drag. All other objects are described by a dimmed rectangle defining the extents of the selected objects.
4. observe that pressing the cmd>Control Key as we drag the item causes all selected objects to be previewed as we perform our move by dragging operation

A special note regarding bitmaps:
If the selection set contains a bitmap then there are two important nuances to remember:

1. If a bitmap is part of the selection set and you mouse down on the bitmap to drag and move objects, then all objects are obscured by the bitmap. This is normal behavior. Simply press the Control key as described above and all objects will be previewed in the correct order.
2. If a bitmap is part of a select set and you mouse down on an object other than the bitmap to drag and move objects then only the selected object is previewed as described earlier. Simply press the cmd>Control key and all objects, including the bitmap, will be previewed in the correct order.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

------
If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak