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Drawing at an angle to the grid

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Message 1 of 11
shutterspeed6
1028 Views, 10 Replies

Drawing at an angle to the grid

I drew a rectangle, then went back and drew protuberances afterward. I usually use guide lines for this, but I can't figure how to space the guide lines when the drawing is rotated from the grid. The 2D Coordinate box does not seem to be the way.

By the way, I noticed that when I use the azimuth of an existing line to set the angle for a rotated guideline with the drawing in compass mode, the guideline will be perpendicular to the line; and when the drawing is is standard mode, the guideline will be parallel to the line.

What is the best way to control the placement of these protuberances when they are drawn after the fact? I did it by drawing over the lines and then erasing the unnecessary lines.
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Message 2 of 11
000jdi
in reply to: shutterspeed6

HI John



I would rotate the grid to match the angle of your rotated objects. If I understand what you are looking for...

Tools ---> Drawing options ---> Grid tab at bottom grid postion and enter desired angle. You must hit the rectangular grid button on the grid toolbar to get it to reset the displayed grid to correct angle.

Regards

Jason Edited by: 000jdi on Feb 3, 2010 8:15 PM
Regards
Jason
Message 3 of 11

This John you speak of... you seem to know him.

Well, it seems that the guideline function behaves the same regardless of grid orientation. In fact, AS seems to continue to identify plus X as right and plus Y as up.

Also, when I draw guidelines parallel to the axes, I use the 2D Coordinate box to control their spacing. However, this type of entry doesn't seem to work at all with rotated guidelines, with or without the grid rotated.

So I'm back to my question.

Thanks for responding.

Shutterspeed6
Message 4 of 11
Anonymous
in reply to: shutterspeed6

Shutterspeed6 wrote:
> This John you speak of... you seem to know him.

Hahaha! I think I like you. Nicely put.

_h
Message 5 of 11
000jdi
in reply to: shutterspeed6

Shutterspeed6

>>>This John you speak of... you seem to know him.>>> Sorry thought your name was John, guess I am wrong, just trying to be friendly...Seems more personable to use names.

The 2d coordinate entry has the option to place points relative to grid so you can draw you guidelines relative to any point aligned to the grid you set up... So you can certainly get what you need from setting you grid at angle and then align you point entry to grid x,y

An alternate way would be to offset a line the distance you need and you can then draw a 2 point guide line on top of the offset line...
Hope that helps...

Regards
Jason
Regards
Jason
Message 6 of 11

Hi Jason,

My name is in fact John. I appreciate both your courtesy and your efforts to help. That was only a feeble attempt on my part at being enigmatic. I'm still reacting to the death of J. D. Salinger, or something.

Here is a drawing file. I took a screen shot of it while I was setting the second guideline and embedded it into the drawing. The drawing is oriented in Compass mode. I rotated the grid 60 degrees. If you inquire the line segment I drew, its azimuth will read at 12 degrees, the same as it did when I drew it with the grid in normal rotation. After I rotated the grid, I pressed the guideline button and entered a rotation angle of 60 degrees. I selected rotated guideline and grid snap, and set the guideline at lower left. Then I set snap off and typed R. As you see in the screen shot, I entered X=1", tabbed to Y and entered 0, then Enter. The result was the other guideline. The two guidelines are obviously not 1" apart.

Again, it seems to me that the 2D Coordinate box reacts to the drawing orientation and ignores the grid altogether.

What am I doing wrong?

John
Message 7 of 11
000jdi
in reply to: shutterspeed6

Hi John

After the grid is rotated. Select angled guide line, you can leave all the snaps you normally have on. Have grid snap on. Then press w to set a working point, click to set point you want to use as reference for your guideline. Then type r to open 2d coord box , ensure its set to relative grid xy , and enter you offset positive or negative and it should work.
Make sure that there are no locks set like normal,ortho etc.

The picture you embedded did not show up, I am not sure why. The file I attached I drew 2 guidelines 1" in +x and -x using the steps above. I also embedded a pic to see if it works.

Regards

Jason
Regards
Jason
Message 8 of 11

Hi Jason,

Well, I tried doing exactly what you did, and here are the results. I can't seem to make it work. What I did discover, though, is that placing a picture in the drawing only establishes a link to the picture. To embed the picture is a separate operation. It's explained in Help under the title Tracing a Scanned Drawing (in Version 9). I think this time the picture should come through.

So I've learned a new thing, but I'd really like to know why I can't duplicate your results with guidelines. Could it be something about the way I rotated the grid? I'm pretty sure I followed your instructions in order to set the guidelines. I tried it several times with different spacings. It still seems to me that the program is treating east as plus X, regardless of grid orientation. For me, not for you.

Regards,

John
Message 9 of 11
000jdi
in reply to: shutterspeed6

Hi, John


Now I see, you are using align xy which is global xy and is behaving as you said x is east west and y is horth south. In the 2d coordinate use the relative grid xy and you should get the results you were looking for. See attached picture.


Regards

Jason
Regards
Jason
Message 10 of 11

Thanks Jason. Now it falls into place. This is the first use of a working point I have learned that does something I really need. I don't quite grasp what can be done with them yet. Harvey showed me another use earlier, but I have a feeling I have yet to learn more.

I see you use a Mac. This is off the subject of AutoSketch, but I field tested an early prototype of the ipad. Here's a photo of it.

Regards,

John
Message 11 of 11
000jdi
in reply to: shutterspeed6

Hi John


Good to see you have what you need. No I am on Vista so I guess that is why my dialog looks different, but I don't know why I dont have the snap tool bar at the bottom like in your pic.


Nice Etch a sketch!, I do not even know if the ipad can draw as good as the etch a sketch yet. I am not sure what apps are being developed (cad) but its seems dissapointing that the ipad is more a big iphone than an actual computer.


Regards

Jason
Regards
Jason

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