ebdesign Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 Nice tip Glenn. I can stop making a line a polyline just to move it concentrically. I think we have beaten this "drag/tab as an offset tool" into submission. There does seem to be a difference between copy/paste & copy/paste in place. You wanna see the 2-headed move handle, not the 4-headed one. It appears the behavior is pretty consistent too; although it didn't work for Scott in his short Pt2 video; even though he thought it did. (5.333' is 5'-4", not the fractional distance displayed) Why it works like that is a question for Chief. Anyway, another "secret handshake" ferretted out; & as long as the user is aware of that, drag/tab seems pretty reliable as an Offset tool. There were 666 views of this thread yesterday morning. Now there are over 1k views, so there were a few users following this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbuttery Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 I can't even begin to remember all these "secret handshakes" boggles the mind Lew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 ......... It appears the behavior is pretty consistent too; although it didn't work for Scott in his short Pt2 video; even though he thought it did. (5.333' is 5'-4", not the fractional distance displayed) Why it works like that is a question for Chief....... Jim, I retested and CA has it correct. I typed in 5.333' which is not 5'4, it is 5'-3-3/8, If I type in 5.333333333', I get 5'-3-15/16". .333' is not 4" but just short of 4". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyGump Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 Yes, change from VectorWorks to Chief. Andy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebdesign Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 Yeah, .333' is just a hair short of 4", but not 5/8" short. More like 1/128" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barton_Brown Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 Yes, change from VectorWorks to Chief. Andy. Andy, what are you doing? Trying to hijack this thread and take it back to the OP's original question? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 Yeah, .333' is just a hair short of 4", but not 5/8" short. More like 1/128" You got me there. But Jim, I think I now have your "TAB DISEASE" The move by tab is not working for me now. Take a look at quick vid, it's like your initial vid. I did post plan to see if somebody can replicate my issue. This is a serious problem THE VID http://youtu.be/DVzNQTPhh7s EDIT: I just figured out what I was doing wrong, and I think Jim eluded to this in a prior post and I did not pick up on it. You must move the line from it's CENTER POINT. I had not realized that before. Why is that? That should not be necessary. JIMS SCREW UP DIMENSION VID PLAN 1.plan.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebdesign Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 Aaarrrgggghhh..............I think it's time for one of the Chief dudes to chime in. I've been aware of this "issue" for quite a while & I'm certain I've submitted this odd behavior to TS previously, but will do so again if necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glennw Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 d dot, Just a heads up. I noticed on your last video that when it doesn't work the, the angle in the Enter Coordinates dbx is being reported incorrectly. Or rather, it is probably being reported correctly at some unexpected angle (like from the cursor start location to the cursor finish location, or similar). I can confirm that if you select the line and drag it from its center point, the angle reports correctly and it always moves the correct distance. If you drag the line from other than the center point, the angle is reported incorrectly and the line moves the incorrect (expected) distance. The distance is actually being measured along the incorrect angle reported in the Enter Coordinates dbx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 Yes, thanks Glenn . I sent to tech support, the following is their explanation, thanks Taylor. Hello Scott, Thank you for contacting Technical Support with this. I will submit this to the developers, however I thought you'd appreciate an explanation as to what is happening with the Enter Coordinates dialog. First, it doesn't matter what angle the line is at, it only matters where on the line it's being selected. I've tested this back to X4, so I'm not entirely sure how far back it goes, but it's not a new issue with X6 by any means. Attached are some visual aids, but essentially what is happening is that when you grab a line and hit TAB or ENTER to display the Enter Coordinates dialog, the Angle automatically fills with relative a Polar Angle, however when selecting a point off-center on the line, you will notice the Angle changes from what it should be -- the angle becomes more shallow the further from center you select. If I were to guess, it is basing the Angle off of the selected point on the line and treating that as the "Relative to Start" point. With the incorrect angle, it then measures out the Distance from the selected point, rather than a 90° angle from the line's original position, and moves the line Polar to it's original location. Check out the screenshots, as it makes way more sense to see it. For now, of course the fix is to just select the center of the line, however you can also manually enter the correct angle in which the line is to move. I hope this clears up the confusion as to what it's doing, and as I said, I'll send this off to the developers to look into further. Taylor Chief Architect Technical Support Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LevisL Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 Dshall, nice video, thanks. However, offsetting should be easier, as you observed. I know I'm guilty of a bias, but in AutoCAD I can activate an offset command, enter a value for distance and angle (or click on two points to define distance and angle), then begin offsetting objects by selecting them. I can offset as many objects as I want until I exit the command; it's a very powerful, fast, intuitive feature, and CA should have similar functionality. Yes. Thanks Jim and Dshall. I definitely picked up some useful tidbits from this discussion and the videos. I guess there's a few different ways to achieve an offset with the tools we currently have, but it should be more straight forward. The fact that I've been a user since X1 (definitely not a novice, though still a rookie compared to some of you guys!), and I didn't know some of these tricks just confirms that. I know we all learn something new about the program everyday, but it shouldn't have taken me 6 years or so to figure out how to do a simple odd-angle offset quickly! BTW, sorry to the OP for starting this whole offset discussion! I didn't anticipate my comment opening a can of worms like that!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebdesign Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 That's how these types of discussions often start, hijacking a thread. The OP got his answer several times early (& late) & the thread turned out to be quite informative & enlightening, at least for me. I knew there was an "issue" w/ drag/tab as an offset tool, but my understanding of how it works is much clearer now. Thanks to Glenn & Scott. I look forward to a "real" offset tool (& stretch tool) in X7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barton_Brown Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 At the risk of annoying a few people, my preference is that as soon as a thread gets hijacked, the hijackers start a new thread and allow the original thread to return to the stated thread subject. Thread hijacking is easy to do, I admit to falling into the trap myself. I doubt the the OP really got an answer to his question other than a couple of posts saying 'switch to CA' without much discussion. I'm speaking out because I was interested in learning about what the competition to CA has to offer. That discussion got completely swamped out once the thread was hijacked. Anyone viewing the thread subject title would have had no idea this thread was about the need for a CAD 'offset' tool - who knows, you may have had additional contributors had the thread and title been consistent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 At the risk of annoying a few people, my preference is that as soon as a thread gets hijacked....... Yep, I am annoyed. The OP got his answer very quickly. What else does he expect to hear from people who use this program? It's a great program, if it wasn't, we would be using something else. I am with Jim, this was a very informative thread and quite frankly I would rather learn something new at the risk of hijacking a thread. There are probably a hundred different threads on why this program is preferrable over another. But how many threads thrash out what we just spent over a hundred posts thrashing out? Jeez guys, look at the positives that came out of this thread. The OP gets a lot of props from me because he stimulated this conversation. Barton, you should be thanking those that contributed to your education in lieu of bashing them. Unbelievable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbuttery Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 Hmmm, I agree that hijacking is bad but the info was informative no real reason NOT to start a new thread to continue the discussion but somebody has to realize the thread is being hijacked and do it a social conundrum indeed... Lew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CARMELHILL Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 I switched 2 or 3 years ago. In a word, YES, YES, YES, YES. And one more time, YES. Chief has been SO important to my office now for both residential and commercial. I would NEVER EVER look back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barton_Brown Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 Yep, I am annoyed. The OP got his answer very quickly. What else does he expect to hear from people who use this program? It's a great program, if it wasn't, we would be using something else. I am with Jim, this was a very informative thread and quite frankly I would rather learn something new at the risk of hijacking a thread. There are probably a hundred different threads on why this program is preferrable over another. But how many threads thrash out what we just spent over a hundred posts thrashing out? Jeez guys, look at the positives that came out of this thread. The OP gets a lot of props from me because he stimulated this conversation. Barton, you should be thanking those that contributed to your education in lieu of bashing them. Unbelievable. Scott, Sorry you are annoyed, I was too after the thread got hijacked. How do you know the OP got his answers - he was just starting to ask questions about CA details when the bottom fell out of the discussion. He was looking for productivity improvements - didn't see much in the discussions that addressed that topic. I was hoping to get a better handle on how other programs compare - with some details - not just "I switched and I love CA". I have an architect friend that I've been trying to convince he should switch from ACAD to CA but I don't know ACAD. Thought this thread could provide some general insights I could leverage in our discussions. I've already given him my pitch - which was a good enough that now I do his 3D ray traces while he does the 2D CDs in ACAD. It is a sweet deal for me so maybe I shouldn't be rocking the boat except that it is a lot of duplicate effort which his business can't afford in the long run. My fear is that he would ask me about CA competitors - like Vectorworks and I would have no response. Moving on, was the other information informative? Would it have been just as informative if a minutes worth of effort had been spent starting a new thread dedicated to the new topic? Yes and Yes. Was this 'hijack information' as valuable to me as the original thread topic started out to be, No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPDesign Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 I switched from using a hammer in 1997 I never looked back! I suggest download the trial and have a look. Chief is and has become a very professional design tool to get the job done. From concept to finished construction documents. Plus a very active and generous community of users. regards, Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BryceEngstrom Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 Anyone viewing the thread subject title would have had no idea this thread was about the need for a CAD 'offset' tool - who knows, you may have had additional contributors had the thread and title been consistent. Yes, this is what annoys me most about thread hijacking. Great discussion, too bad no one will every be able to find it later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raltd9245 Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 Okay, but how many of your projects actually involve out of plumb walls? Do you do those projects completely in another software? I've had a few in my 43 years of practice. My point would be the more flexible the software the better the design. Just My opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barton_Brown Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 This is Jerry's ( gwheckendorn ) response to a PM I sent him regarding whether his questions about CA were answered (he gave me permission to post his response): Good Morning Barton, I have no idea what 'hijacking' means in terms of thread manipulation...so I had/have no idea of what happened. To answer your question, I am still struggling with making the move after all the time and money invested in Vectorworks. However, I've been very disappointed in the lack of productivity I have with their product..even after joining Archoncad (which is a web based training site by Jonathan Pickup who has written several of Vectorworks training manuals) and reading a large volume of pdfs and watching tons of videos. That is what I'm doing now with Chief Architect. I started using the trail version of CA ver. X6, but the program crashed on my Macbook twice, causing me to lose all the work I did (each time when I went to work on the roof). Without the ability to save any work I've done, I had to start over. I was attempting to re-create a recent project I completed with VW so I could compare the excercise to what I know. Anyway, I still need to research/think about making the move, and the thread helped a little..but not enough to reach my tipping point! Jerry I would like to restart the conversation. This time specifically focusing on the productivity features that are bothering Jerry and that CA is, hopefully, better at providing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raltd9245 Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 At the risk of annoying a few people, my preference is that as soon as a thread gets hijacked, the hijackers start a new thread and allow the original thread to return to the stated thread subject. Thread hijacking is easy to do, I admit to falling into the trap myself. I doubt the the OP really got an answer to his question other than a couple of posts saying 'switch to CA' without much discussion. I'm speaking out because I was interested in learning about what the competition to CA has to offer. That discussion got completely swamped out once the thread was hijacked. Anyone viewing the thread subject title would have had no idea this thread was about the need for a CAD 'offset' tool - who knows, you may have had additional contributors had the thread and title been consistent. You are correct blame the Troll under the bridge. It is because he doesn't have a home. Living our of a shopping cart is difficult. Working on projects even more difficult. He does the best he can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barton_Brown Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 At the risk of starting another hijacking... I didn't blame the Troll under the bridge, or anyone else. Hijacking is easy to do, I just prefer that threads stay on topic. That said, hopefully Jerry will rejoin us and get the conversation started again. He is aware that I posted his comments and my desire to re-engage the conversation... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 My apologies for participating in the hijack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raltd9245 Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 No need to apologize. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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