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Snapping :: Life Before Offset Snapping

Submitted by EditorHuc on Wed, 2006-01-18 21:49

Question

How can I use the Edit Window to specify the start point for drawing an object?

Requirements

Any version of PowerDraw or PowerCADD
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS? X Tiger (10.4.4) or newer recommended



Background

The Edit Window is one of the most power and, sadly, misunderstood feature of PowerDraw and PowerCADD. Chief among the many benefits of the Edit Window is its' ability to accept direct input of user values including mathematical operations. In fact, the Edit Window can even accept mixed units! (for example, the drawing units might be set to millimetres but calculations or values can be entered in feet, inches, miles, etc.).

This technique is compliments of PowerCADD Canada XTNL URL - Thanks!

What to do

When you find yourself in the situation where: Even when using "object snap on" this makes some snaps unusable in conjunction with the OFFSET snap.

Simply forget about the O snap.
You can use solution #15 (derived from Life before the Offset snap):

  1. choose the tool you want to use
  2. use the snap you really need to use to snap to that specific spot on the object
  3. begin to drag/draw
  4. key Tab and use the simple boolean math feature of the Edit Window and add + (or subtract -) to the beginning X and/or Y coordinates to invoke your offset(Drunk
  5. key Enter and continue drawing the way you want to.

Following the above steps, quicktime In this demo movie (120KB) , we'll use direct input in the Edit Window to specify the start point for a line. The line wants to start 2'-0" (X) right and 6" (Y) up from the corner of a building. While PowerCADD v5 and newer provide an Offset Snap for this sort of task, we can achieve the same results using a very basic PowerCADD technique. (need movie help?)

We hope that helps tweak your imagination as to some of the fundamental techniques available in PowerCADD!

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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