topic Re: Move/stretch on locked direction in AutoCAD Forum

Move/stretch on locked direction

polverini.1054591 — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 12:52:35 GMT

Hi, I was wondering if there's a quick way to lock the direction of a move/stretch command so I can resize an object clicking directly on a snap point, without locking to it, just like the move command in sketchup while pressing the shift key. Any ideas?

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

pendean — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 13:03:38 GMT

Holding SHIFT down (give it a second to kick in) give you ORTHO, much like F8 button on your keyboard toggles ORTHO on/off

F10 button on your keyboard can be used to toggle POLAR TRACKING on/off, but you have to preset it first to the angles you want.

You can look all of these up in HELP on your AutoCAD session.

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

polverini.1054591 — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 13:26:48 GMT

Yep I knew that and it sligtly works as I'd like, problem is that I still need to combine ortho with polar tracking so I occasionally lose the correct tracking point and get the wrong result: I was wondering if there's a way to directly lock the direction so that if I click on the snap point it will stretch or move overriding the snap click while using it to fix only a distance. Hope this clears what I'm trying to achieve here 🙂

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

polverini.1054591 — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 13:33:15 GMT

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/screencast/Main/Details/9b2da834-3f1b-4beb-a889-9d86f7cbec09.html
Like this

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

imadHabash — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 13:48:49 GMT

how about using Grips options ? >> Click <<

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

polverini.1054591 — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 16:12:06 GMT

Same thing, I usually use midpoint snap to move a segment to another position: it just so happens that if I click on a different snap point, the geometry moves or gets stretched to that point. I'm looking for a solution to override that, but I guess this is not so straightforward as I thought.

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

Kent1Cooper — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 16:29:33 GMT

@polverini.1054591 wrote:

.... to directly lock the direction so that if I click on the snap point it will stretch or move overriding the snap click while using it to fix only a distance. ....

You can lock the direction by typing in < followed by the angle you want. Unfortunately, if you then use Osnap to pick a location, its result will override that angle.

But try this, if circumstances warrant:

Use the DIST command to get the distance you want [this is where I'm not sure circumstances will always warrant -- a distance measurement may not be able to be made with its result in the direction you're after]. That will put the value into the DISTANCE System Variable. Then start STRETCH, pick your stuff, and pick the starting point. Then type in < followed by the number of units of angle [in whatever your current angle units setting is], which will lock in the Stretching direction, and then type in (getvar 'distance) which will supply that saved distance value.

If that's not viable, the workaround would be to draw a temporary Line or Ray or Xline in a direction perpendicular to your desired angle, and through your desired snap point. Then STRETCH and go perpendicular to that. Erase the temporary reference.

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

polverini.1054591 — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 09:26:54 GMT

Thanks for your help, I see what you propose is something similar to what I'm looking for, even though I was trying to figure out an easy way to do it, while yours seems pretty convoluted. Isn't there maybe a way to do it through LISP or something?

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

Kent1Cooper — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 10:33:38 GMT

@polverini.1054591 wrote:

.... Isn't there maybe a way to do it through LISP or something?

Very likely. Go over to the place for that -- the >Customization Forum< -- and it would be helpful if you include an image or sample drawing showing what you mean, with before and after conditions.

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

GrantsPirate — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 13:56:05 GMT

If you enter mid during the move command then only a midpoint will be selected, regardless of what the running osnaps are set to. I use the Function keys for my osnaps, so if I only want mid I hit F4 and only midpoint will be selected. Picking off of any geometry will result in nothing being picked and you will still be in the move command where you can enter mid and try again.

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

Kent1Cooper — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 16:48:48 GMT

@GrantsPirate wrote:

If you enter mid during the move command then only a midpoint will be selected....

Maybe I'm mis-interpreting, but because of the word "segment" in "I usually use midpoint snap to move a segment to another position," I assumed the OP meant using the mid-point grip on a Polyline line segment to move the segment [which has not always been possible]. @polverini.1054591 , is that correct?

Also, am I correct that this is the kind of thing you want to do? Stretch the red shape [it's a Polyline], from the blue dot [whether you start by picking on the grip there or otherwise], specifying the 30-degree angle to lock in the direction, and by picking on the green dot, have the red part go that far but in the locked-in direction, to become the dashed magenta arrangement, but without drawing any temporary reference such as the dotted white line?

If not, give us a correct image of what's needed.

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

GrantsPirate — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 19:24:48 GMT

Yes, it is really difficult understanding what the OP is wanting. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

polverini.1054591 — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 10:55:46 GMT

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/screencast/Main/Details/9b2da834-3f1b-4beb-a889-9d86f7cbec09.html

I posted this video a few replies earlier, this should clarify the function I'm trying to accomplish, which I should stress clearly, should be time saving against having to draw construction lines which, as someone suggested before, should be the standard way to go. I'll post pictures trying to explain even further, but I think the behaviour should be clear now, isn't it?

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

Kent1Cooper — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 11:56:35 GMT

For the orthogonally-oriented directions as in your video [this won't work in other directions as in my image], you can use >Coordinate Filters<. For your video's first move of the box to line up a corner of it with the midpoint of the XY-plane Line, you would do this:
MOVE

{select the box, Enter to complete selection}

{pick the corner of the box as the start of the displacement, then:}

.Y {note the preceding period/decimal]

{pick the midpoint of the Line to get the Y coordinate of the end-of-displacement destination}

(need XZ)

{pick anywhere that shares X and Z coordinates with that destination -- it can be on the start-of-displacement corner again}

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

polverini.1054591 — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 13:38:50 GMT

Thanks for sharing, yes, this procedure comes close to what I'm proposing, even though it's a little time consuming and I guess only works for a specified axis, while what you see in the video works in a fast and easy fashion. I believe such a function hasn't been implemented yet on autocad, I'll look further for it in the customization section, just to see if anyone would be able to build a lisp to emulate the behaviour of my video. Would be nice if a similar procedure could be inserted in a future autocad release!

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 01:12:05 GMT

This is exactly what I am looking for! I came searching, and you have shown a very clear example. So is there a tool/shortcut for this?

Thanks.

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

Code_x — Sat, 11 Sep 2021 16:45:42 GMT

Have you found any solution to this? I need to use this method as well.

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

zigis900 — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 13:03:04 GMT

this worked but seems too complicated & archaic ... especially after using Sketchup (lock axis direction by pressing shift or arrow keys)

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

cadffm — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 14:55:52 GMT

What do you need more than SHIFT&click or [F8] to lock in ortho,

or polar&otrack? Plus the pointfilters, which working as you want.

Are you familiar with all of these and still missing something?

Re: Move/stretch on locked direction

pendean — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 15:04:53 GMT

@zigis900 wrote:

this worked but seems too complicated & archaic ... especially after using Sketchup (lock axis direction by pressing shift or arrow keys)

AutoCAD is not SketchUp. Sorry. Perhaps you need to switch back? Learning AutoCAD takes some effort for sure, best to start right away if changing software for your business needs is not possible.