Is there a key that forces a straight line when using CAD tools?

[5Design]

In Bluebeam, for instance, if I hold shift it will only allow a straight line.

 

Thanks!

[5Design]

Well, it seems like shift works some times, but not always...idk.

[DBCooper]

If I was feeling snarky, I would say that I don't know any way not to draw a "straight" line using the "draw line" tool.  You can make a straight line curved after the fact by holding down the alt key though.

 

I am guessing that this is not what you meant though.  Maybe you have your "angle snaps" turned off so that you are always drawing lines at arbitrary angles?  And yes, you could assign a hot-key to turn angle snaps on/off if you wanted.  Maybe what you really want is to be able to draw a line at just orthogonal angles?  Unfortunately, you can only set your angle snaps to be either 15 or 7.5 degrees but I have always wanted to be able to set it to 90 or 45 degrees as well.

 

Or maybe you meant something else?

 

[robdyck]

 

18 hours ago, DBCooper said:

f I was feeling snarky, I would say that I don't know any way not to draw a "straight" line using the "draw line" tool.

There has been a bit of a loss of accuracy when drawing lines in section/elevation views. When the end of the line snaps to a cross section line, it can lose it's ability to remain straight.

This is new to X15 and I have raised this issue with TS. Obviously I don't know if this is what the OP was alluding to.

 

[5Design]

1 hour ago, DBCooper said:

If I was feeling snarky, I would say that I don't know any way not to draw a "straight" line using the "draw line" tool.  You can make a straight line curved after the fact by holding down the alt key though.

 

I am guessing that this is not what you meant though.  Maybe you have your "angle snaps" turned off so that you are always drawing lines at arbitrary angles?  And yes, you could assign a hot-key to turn angle snaps on/off if you wanted.  Maybe what you really want is to be able to draw a line at just orthogonal angles?  Unfortunately, you can only set your angle snaps to be either 15 or 7.5 degrees but I have always wanted to be able to set it to 90 or 45 degrees as well.

 

Or maybe you meant something else?

 

 

My angle snaps are on, and it's mostly in elevation views or when I need to edit in layouts.  In plan view it's typically not an issue.

[5Design]

16 minutes ago, robdyck said:

There has been a bit of a loss of accuracy when drawing lines in section/elevation views. When the end of the line snaps to a cross section line, it can lose it's ability to remain straight.

This is new to X15 and I have raised this issue with TS. Obviously I don't know if this is what the OP was alluding to.

 

CAD LINE SNAP PROBLEM.wmv 6.1 MB · 0 downloads

Yeah, that's the issue, in elevation or layout views.  Hopefully they'll remedy the situation.

[para-CAD]

Weird

 

The Video won't play for me.

 

[Kbird1]

20 hours ago, robdyck said:

 

There has been a bit of a loss of accuracy when drawing lines in section/elevation views. When the end of the line snaps to a cross section line, it can lose it's ability to remain straight.

This is new to X15 and I have raised this issue with TS. Obviously I don't know if this is what the OP was alluding to.

 

 

I've noticed this also, and is a recurring bug that seems to reappear every few versions, same as the Sticky Cursor (Bug) we have again in X15

 

M.

[DBCooper]

So it sounds like the problem you are having is that you are getting off-angle lines.  Lines are either curved or straight regardless of their angle which is why I was confused by your question.

 

I'm not sure if there are any bugs because this might just be a side effect of the new object snaps that were added for elevations in X15.  

 

One thing you might want to do is try holding the "s" key while you are drawing a line.  This temporarily turns off object snaps which may help with your problems.  If you want to turn off object snaps before you even start drawing a line, you can use "shift-s" but then you will probably want to turn them back on again when you are done.

 

And if you ever think you have found a bug, then you should probably report it to tech support because just hoping "they'll remedy the situation" usually won't solve any problems.

 

[SHCanada2]

16 hours ago, DBCooper said:

One thing you might want to do is try holding the "s" key while you are drawing a line.

 

thanks, I had this exact problem when trying to annotate elevations with notes last week. I draw a line from the callout to the gable fascia and it tries snapping to something and goes off angle. I could get it there using cntrl key but it was annoying trying to get it to actually be straight and not off slightly. The s key sounds like the much better way

 

[para-CAD]

Use a rectangular polyline then disconnect and delete the 3 unwanted lines.

The rectangle always comes in square.  Kind of a lame workaround but it works.

[robdyck]

Here's a video demonstrating the issue.

 

[Kbird1]

4 hours ago, robdyck said:

Here's a video demonstrating the issue.

 

Yes, this is also what I am experiencing, it make me wonder if itis related to te sticky cursor Issue as it's almost like I can't "let go" of the line in some circumstances.

 

Mick.

[robdyck]

2 hours ago, Kbird1 said:

 

Yes, this is also what I am experiencing, it make me wonder if itis related to te sticky cursor Issue as it's almost like I can't "let go" of the line in some circumstances.

 

Mick.

I did send this in to TS as 'lost functionality' and they agreed. They were not aware that this had changed and I would expect this to be fixed, however it may help if more people report it directly to TS.

[Kbird1]

59 minutes ago, robdyck said:

I did send this in to TS as 'lost functionality' and they agreed. They were not aware that this had changed and I would expect this to be fixed, however it may help if more people report it directly to TS.

 

Okay will do, I haven't yet, as I always get the "we can't reproduce it" refrain for stuff like this and the Sticky cursor Issue, but with your Video Up I will link to it. Wanna put one up here for the Sticky Cursor too

 

Mick.

[AndrewSopher]

On 9/6/2023 at 8:29 AM, robdyck said:

Here's a video demonstrating the issue.

 

 

I have had this issue in multiple instances while in elevation view. It is like it does not want to stay snap onto the object and wants a skew angle. 

[robdyck]

Until proper snapping is brought back, the simplest solution I've found is to draw the line and snap the end of the line to desired point, noticeably off-angle. Then relocate the end of the line and the horizontal or vertical snap will be active and should be simple and easy to hit.

[DBCooper]

Quote

 

the simplest solution I've found is to draw the line and snap the end of the line to desired point, noticeably off-angle. Then relocate the end of the line and the horizontal or vertical snap will be active and should be simple and easy to hit.

 

 

Sounds like more work than just pressing the "s" key to disable the object snaps.

 

[Kbird1]

I think the point is that this shouldn't be happening, it should be impossible to drawn a Line that is not snapped straight without the use of the CTRL Key.

 

At least as far as I am aware everything is supposed to snap Orthogonally by default (snaps) ?  same as you can set Polygon Movement to Ortho or Polar if desired.

 

 

M.

[robdyck]

1 hour ago, DBCooper said:

Sounds like more work than just pressing the "s" key to disable the object snaps.

I believe I mentioned it was the simplest method that I have found. Are you able to post a video to demonstrate your simpler method of drawing accurate horizontal or vertical lines in elevation or section view with snaps disabled? I love learning new techniques!

[SHCanada2]

without the S kedy and with the S key. s key works rather well