Dynamic move/rotate/stretch in one?

[Anonymous]

Is there a way to set a single or series of dynamic actions that can MOVE and ROTATE a set of entities while at the same time, having STRETCH work on a few of those chosen entities so that the endpoints of the few of the chosen entites, which fall outside of the chosen strecth area, stay put and do not Move or Rotate with everything else?  Please see the attached images for an example of the result I am looking for.

Original.JPG is the unmoved or unstretched block (Note the Blue Pentagon is only shown as spatial reference, not part of the dynamic block)

Changed.JPG is an example of what I would like to do, having the dynamic actions to-

1. MOVE the Red Rectangle to the opposite side of the Blue Pentagon

2. ROTATE the Red Rectangle at any angle chosen

3. While at the same time, STRETCH the 8 endpoints of the Purple Lines so they always remain at their same place on the Red Rectangle AND their opposite endpoints (far away from the Red Rectangle) do not move or rotate.

As a further explanation, the Red Rectangle is a marine vessel and the Purple Lines are anchor lines extending far away from the vessel to anchor positions.

The vessel may move/rotate along with the 8 anchor line endpoint attachments at the vessel; however, the 8 anchor line endpoints, where the actual anchors exist, never move or rotate.

I tried chaining a rotate action to a polar stretch action and vice-versa to no success.

Any help provided is greatly appreciated.

[Libbya]

It's easier if you post up the drawing to play with instead of having to make it up from scratch.  

[Anonymous]

Thank you Libbya,

Please find attached the block dwg itself and a test dwg with the block already inserted.

I have not included any previous attempts of dynamic actions as they did not respond at all in ways that I had hoped.

Thanks again

[Libbya]

This screencast shows the ste-by-step to achieve what I believe you want.  Let me know if you get stuck or have questions.

[Anonymous]

Libbya,

Thank you very much for your help. Using your tutorial screencast I've almost got my dynamic block the way I need!

I have only a few entities that are not responding the way I had hoped now that I have included your suggestions.

Please find attached a dwg of the block which indeed includes your suggested parameters and actions. Please be aware however, that this block is a bit more complex than the previous one I posted.

It has 6 visibility states included, and your suggested dynamic parameters and actions are included on the 3 last visibility states, all titled "Anchor *".

Also, be aware that the new Move/Rotation/Stretch actions are intended to work though all 6 visibility states, and indeed they do so in this dynamic block thanks to you.

Instead of placing the stretching grip in the center of the Vessel, as you did in the screencast, I have placed the stretching grip at the 0,0 position of the block because this point (the rear of the vessel) will be the base point from which we shall grab to move to specific coordinates AND as the base around which to stretch/rotate.

It is exactly when I apply the move and/or stretch/rotate dynamic actions that I encounter two previously created entities/actions not doing what I intend-

Please notice the Vessel Name attribute in the center of the vessel and the Heading attribute at the bow of the vessel.

As these should always be aligned along the length of the vessel (and readable), I have added Rotation actions for each to rotate them with an associated Lookup table and both of these attributes would be flipped around 180.

This way the text of the attribute could be read from whatever angle the vessel is at.

Note however when you apply either the Move and/or the Stretch/Rotate dynamic actions the result is this attributed text rotating at weird angles to the vessel, not aligned with it.

To see this in the test block window, you must not move the vessel in the cardinal directions, but rather, place it randomly.  Make sure your ortho lock is not on or it will seem to be working fine.

Before the latest dynamic actions were applied this was working well, but then again, we were only using the basic AutoCAD move and rotate commands to place the vessel. 

I’m not sure what this needs for fixing but any help you can provide is appreciated.

[Libbya · Accepted solution]

Position9 parameter has the main stretch associated to it.  Remove the two attribute rotation parameters from that main stretch action.  Add a move action to the point parameter and move the two rotations rather than stretching them.

[Anonymous]

Perfect! Thanks very much for your help.  Just what we were looking for.