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positioning objects on the grid

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Message 1 of 12
fgruber
383 Views, 11 Replies

positioning objects on the grid

When I move or copy an object using the mouse, the object is not snapped by the grid. I see the reason of that: The reference point (the mouse cross) is somewhere in the middle of the object, a position that may be between grid points. This point is snapped by the grid and not the endpoints of the lines of the original object I want to move.

I hate this behaviour of Autosketch 7. In Autosketch 2.0 it was easy to move objects in the grid using the mouse. The only solution I found, is to copy objects over the clipboard, but that is not comfortable.
Can anyone give me a tip?

Ferdinand Gruber
11 REPLIES 11
Message 2 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: fgruber

Sorry I can't help but I have also noticed this anomoly and IMHO it's a bug
that should have been fixed by now - there cannot be many times at all (none
that I can think of) when you want the 'mouse point' to snap to grid or
anywhere else as it's never the same point twice. What should happen is that
the object's ref point or end point or mid point *should* snap to grid or
any other snap point for that matter, not the mouse ref point...
Just another one of those little bugs that need fixing.... 😞
The only way at the moment to move/copy things accurately is to use the
'translate' command.
An accurate 'drag & drop' translation would be very very nice - come on you
'bug fixers' how about it?
Please?



"fgruber" wrote in message
news:f11559c.-1@WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> When I move or copy an object using the mouse, the object is not snapped
by the grid. I see the reason of that: The reference point (the mouse cross)
is somewhere in the middle of the object, a position that may be between
grid points. This point is snapped by the grid and not the endpoints of the
lines of the original object I want to move.
> I hate this behaviour of Autosketch 7. In Autosketch 2.0 it was easy to
move objects in the grid using the mouse. The only solution I found, is to
copy objects over the clipboard, but that is not comfortable.
> Can anyone give me a tip?
>
> Ferdinand Gruber
>
>
Message 3 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: fgruber

Place the cursor over the about point, right click on it, and choose "Move
About Point." Locate the about point on your entity that you want on the
grid, and use grid snap to place it there.

John
Message 4 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: fgruber

John of course is right. And so am I:

Don't use the grid! No need. It just gets in the way.

Use the Transform tools to place objects or entities where you want
them.

Our old friend Paul told us years ago that it's always best to draw
specific entities somewhere on the drawing page and then move them into
position on the drawing in any number of ways using those Translate
tools. I hated to say it but he was right on that one.

He's wrong so many times that sometimes it's hard to guess where he's
right. But we love him anyway.

fgruber wrote:
>
> When I move or copy an object using the mouse, the object is not
> snapped by the grid. I see the reason of that: The reference point
> (the mouse cross) is somewhere in the middle of the object, a position
> that may be between grid points. This point is snapped by the grid and
> not the endpoints of the lines of the original object I want to move.
>
> I hate this behaviour of Autosketch 7. In Autosketch 2.0 it was easy
> to move objects in the grid using the mouse. The only solution I
> found, is to copy objects over the clipboard, but that is not
> comfortable.
> Can anyone give me a tip?
>
> Ferdinand Gruber

--
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Message 5 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: fgruber

Here's the thing, Ferdinand. You can just start drawing you entities
anywhere on the page. Untick the Page box in View>Appearance and then
the entire screen is always filled with the "paper."

Now what you do is create any entitiy and move it into position IN
RELATION TO WHAT IS THERE ALREADY! That's the trick. And it's why you
should take a few minutes to see what those Tranform tools do. Ask away
here for any details you need.

You can stand this program on its head with those guys. And it's so easy
to do that in a few days you'll wonder why no one told you before this!

That'll be $10, please. Just forward your credit card numbers.

fgruber wrote:
>
> When I move or copy an object using the mouse, the object is not
> snapped by the grid. I see the reason of that: The reference point
> (the mouse cross) is somewhere in the middle of the object, a position
> that may be between grid points. This point is snapped by the grid and
> not the endpoints of the lines of the original object I want to move.
>
> I hate this behaviour of Autosketch 7. In Autosketch 2.0 it was easy
> to move objects in the grid using the mouse. The only solution I
> found, is to copy objects over the clipboard, but that is not
> comfortable.
> Can anyone give me a tip?
>
> Ferdinand Gruber
Message 6 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: fgruber

>
> Don't use the grid! No need. It just gets in the way.

Agreed.

>
> Use the Transform tools to place objects or entities where you want
> them.

But wouldn't it be really nice to be able to drag objects/symbols and have
them placed accurately to any other object/line or symbol without having to
use 'translate' and select 'e' for endpoint or 'm' for midpoint and forget
to select on deselect the 'copy' box/?
All the above could be done with the autosnap function (if it worked
correctly instead of using the mouse reference!) and just hold the ctrl key
for copy as you drag the object....

Heaven! 🙂
Message 7 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: fgruber

I don't get your point here, Angry.

Once you tick the copy box, it stays ticked. The [Ctrl] key with
Move+snap will copy things where you want, won't it? I don't have the
program up now and haven't used it in a while, so I'm a bit rusty on
this detail. And you can always use the MoveAboutPoint for positioning,
if that's reasonable.

But I personally like the use of the snap function with the Translate
tools. It seems to me quite logical and the way a programmer would want
to see it and create it.

One can envision all sorts of changes to this program to make it like
another program, but that's really not the game. The game is to find the
bugs! Not hard with V7. Don't know about V8. V6 is quite smooth for what
it does.

Anyway, woulda coulda shoulda. There would have to be quite a user
groundswell for ADSK to make substantive changes to this low-end
program. So we're stuck with what it does, and it ain't bad for $100. At
least V6 ain't bad!

AngryofMayfair wrote:
>
> >
> > Don't use the grid! No need. It just gets in the way.
>
> Agreed.
>
> >
> > Use the Transform tools to place objects or entities where you want
> > them.
>
> But wouldn't it be really nice to be able to drag objects/symbols and have
> them placed accurately to any other object/line or symbol without having to
> use 'translate' and select 'e' for endpoint or 'm' for midpoint and forget
> to select on deselect the 'copy' box/?
> All the above could be done with the autosnap function (if it worked
> correctly instead of using the mouse reference!) and just hold the ctrl key
> for copy as you drag the object....
>
> Heaven! 🙂

--
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Message 8 of 12
fgruber
in reply to: fgruber

Thank you John, I tried at once what you told me and that was a solution for my problem. This way of working is a little complicated in comparison with AutoSketch 2.1 but it works.
I am using AutoSketch at school with 13 and 14 years old pupils and I am sorry that I had to leave release 2 and step up to 7. The reason was, that AutoSketch 2 crashed on our new Compaq Computers. And the only thing of R2.1 that I did not like was the matter, that in this program you must first choose the action you want to do (copy, move ...) and then select the object. I do not know any program with this sequence of actions ... But otherwise that small old program would be the better way for drawing at school than with AutoSketch 7 - it ist too complex.

Ferdinand
Message 9 of 12
fgruber
in reply to: fgruber

Thank you, Harvey for your posting.
Theese are new interesting aspects for me.
Anyway I am surprised of that echo of my posting. It is the first time that I try this newsgroup and it not easy for me to read and to write in English language. I am not familiar with talking about technical and drawing problems in English. Therefore I think the only one, who should get 10 $ (or 10 Euro) is me, due to that hard working ...

Ferdinand
Message 10 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: fgruber

Harvey wrote:
> I don't get your point here, Angry.
>
> Once you tick the copy box, it stays ticked. The [Ctrl] key with
> Move+snap will copy things where you want, won't it?


Hi Harvey,
Yes the 'copy' box works fine - it's just that I have always found it to
be incredibly easy to forget to use it!
It always seems to be ticked when I don't want to copy and unticked when
i do want to copy. This usually means an 'undo' and then another
translation attempt, this time with the box ticked or unticked...
It just seems to me that since Autodesk took over Drafix and attempted
to make it 'Windows compatible' or whatever, they could have so easily
got rid of this silly tick box and allowed the use of the ctrl key to
copy (during translating) which is common in most Windows software and
is in fact exactly what we do when dragging an object (hold ctrl to
leave the original) so why isn't it the same for the translate command,
or the mirror/align command for that matter?


>
> But I personally like the use of the snap function with the Translate
> tools. It seems to me quite logical and the way a programmer would
> want to see it and create it.

Absolutely - the translate function works fine in itself - it's just the
'copy' tickbox I dislike...
What I was trying to say was that for me, if I could select and drag a
symbol and move it to another place accurately using autosnap it would
be even easier than using the translate function - just as there are
always many alternatives with a good cad program - this would be a
useful alternative to 'translate'.


>
> One can envision all sorts of changes to this program to make it like
> another program, but that's really not the game. The game is to find
> the bugs! Not hard with V7. Don't know about V8. V6 is quite smooth
> for what it does.

Agreed in general - all software has it's foilbles I guess. AS6 doesn't
have that many and in general it's a pleasure to use - in fact I am
always pushing it's versatility, robustness and lack of high price.


but this *is* my point - IMHO, the reference to the *mouse position*
rather than an object end or mid point when dragging is one big bug!
It's pointless (sorry for the pun!) to use the mouse point position as a
snap reference - it changes depending on just where you have the mouse
when you click on an object to drag it. It would have been far more
useful to use an endpoint or midpoint of the object being dragged so
that it can be dragged and placed accurately in relation to other
objects, or to the grid if folks insist on using it.

It's many years since I used AS2 but from what the originator of this
thread (FG) was saying - that's how it worked in that version and that's
how it should work now.
It's only a minor thing but a nuisance and shouldn't be a huge change -
just a bug-fix patch...

GB
Message 11 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: fgruber

>[...] Therefore I think the only one, who
> should get 10 $ (or 10 Euro) is me, due to that hard working ...

BWAHHHhahahah! Good one!

Agreed, just give us all your credit card number and we'll post the
money to your account.

And have a peek at those Transform tools. I'll send you a little file
you should be able to open in V7/V8. In it there's a little exercise to
move a bit of something around in a drawing in raltionship to other
bits. And I would try to get Paul Jackson's book, "Hands On A House" in
which he details all the common moves you need to regular work.

You can find it on his site, http://www.resolv.com.au/ On the right
side, in the middle, in the book. Worth it.

Harvey
Message 12 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: fgruber

I have been 'learning by doing' in AS 6.0 since I purchased it. Yes, I
regularly create a subdrawing elsewhere on the screen (or if it is complex,
in another, similar window. (I just use 'Save-As' and create a 'scratch pad'
with all the other parameters 'equal' to the project drawing.) When it is
finished, I right-click it and 'group' it. It is still selected, so I hit
(to copy) and then (to paste), move close on the project
drawing to where I want it placed and left-click and a selected copy of the
entity is now close to where it needs to be. With a scroll mouse, I blow up
the magnification to a level sufficient to locate the entity with respect to
everything else and drag and drop it in position (close enough for clean
printing, etc.) Perhaps this is just an alternative description of what you
suggest, but it minimizes the distraction of using dropdown menus and
finding the proper item.

John

Harvey wrote:

> Here's the thing, Ferdinand. You can just start drawing you entities
> anywhere on the page. Untick the Page box in View>Appearance and then
> the entire screen is always filled with the "paper."
>
> Now what you do is create any entitiy and move it into position IN
> RELATION TO WHAT IS THERE ALREADY! That's the trick. And it's why you
> should take a few minutes to see what those Tranform tools do. Ask away
> here for any details you need.
>
> You can stand this program on its head with those guys. And it's so easy
> to do that in a few days you'll wonder why no one told you before this!
>
> That'll be $10, please. Just forward your credit card numbers.
>
> fgruber wrote:
> >
> > When I move or copy an object using the mouse, the object is not
> > snapped by the grid. I see the reason of that: The reference point
> > (the mouse cross) is somewhere in the middle of the object, a position
> > that may be between grid points. This point is snapped by the grid and
> > not the endpoints of the lines of the original object I want to move.
> >
> > I hate this behaviour of Autosketch 7. In Autosketch 2.0 it was easy
> > to move objects in the grid using the mouse. The only solution I
> > found, is to copy objects over the clipboard, but that is not
> > comfortable.
> > Can anyone give me a tip?
> >
> > Ferdinand Gruber

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