2d poly extension

[johnny]

Is there a way in Chief to extend a group of poly "points" or corners all at once?  Here is a vid to explain.

 

 

[Dermot]

Edit Area.

[glennw]

Johnny,

 

You can also use tools like Point To Point Move, Transform/Replicate, Drag/Tab, etc, in conjunction with Edit Area to further control the edit placement.

[johnny]

Edit area isn't working for me - not sure why.  I select the poly, and then "edit area", then "lasso" my area and move - but nothing happens.

[Alaskan_Son]

Don't select your poly first. If you do that, the poly will be treated as your edit area selection polyline. Just click edit area AND THEN draw your lasso just like you would in VW.

[johnny]

I still can't figure this out.

 

[glennw]

Johnny,

 

If you have other objects that are conflicting with your selection process, you will need to isolate that particular polyline so that you can select it with Edit Area.

There are many ways to do that.

Drag it out of the way,  work on it, then move it back.

Lock all other layers except the one that contains the polyline.....create a layerset specifically for this purpose.

[Alaskan_Son]

Johnny,

 

If you have other objects that are conflicting with your selection process, you will need to isolate that particular polyline so that you can select it with Edit Area.

There are many ways to do that.

Drag it out of the way,  work on it, then move it back.

Lock all other layers except the one that contains the polyline.....create a layerset specifically for this purpose.

...or cut/paste hold position into a blank plan (or another floor/detail), modify, and cut/paste hold position back into original view. 

[johnny]

Sorry...i just can't get it to work

 

[glennw]

Johnny,

 

You have moved the goal posts.

Didn't you have a closed polyline in your OP?

You now have an open polyline.

[MickeyToo]

Johnny,

 

Not sure what other suggestions may follow, but if you are working with an open polyline one way to accomplish this would be to temporarily break the polyline in a convenient place, and then use Edit Area to move the cluster of points and lines to where you want. After that you can then reconnect the polyline.

 

Not that difficult, and as Michael suggested, Copy and Paste Hold Position into blank plan and back again if that makes it a bit easier to work on.

[johnny]

Johnny,

You have moved the goal posts.

Didn't you have a closed polyline in your OP?

You now have an open polyline.

I guess I didn't realize the tool considered it such an extreme difference. I may have said closed poly in vid - but I see now if its closed it works. Although..i dont see why it would matter. Shouldn't that tool work regardless?

[Dermot]

Edit area can do lots of cool things but it is by no means a perfect tool.  It can move or stretch walls and closed polylines but there are lots of other things that it will just ignore or not handle in an ideal way.  Since objects in Chief are "smart" parametric objects, they are not all treated the same.  While it would make sense to stretch most polyline based objects it would rarely make sense to stretch an electrical object.  Because each object has it's own special rules, edit area has to know what these are in order to handle them correctly.

 

The bottom line is that if the tool doesn't work the way you think it should, then you should always send a report to us explaining how you want it to work.

[johnny]

Edit area can do lots of cool things but it is by no means a perfect tool.  It can move or stretch walls and closed polylines but there are lots of other things that it will just ignore or not handle in an ideal way.  Since objects in Chief are "smart" parametric objects, they are not all treated the same.  While it would make sense to stretch most polyline based objects it would rarely make sense to stretch an electrical object.  Because each object has it's own special rules, edit area has to know what these are in order to handle them correctly.

 

The bottom line is that if the tool doesn't work the way you think it should, then you should always send a report to us explaining how you want it to work.

 

I will do that, but honestly does it seem reasonable that such a basic function doesn't work if:

 

1. A poly isn't closed, and

2. Only if the poly is completely isolated....?

 

Moving poly points shouldn't be reliant upon those 2 things - we are talking basic function here.

[HumbleChief]

Always enjoy your challenges Johnny and the responses as I learn a lot from them.

 

The ability to lasso points in a shape, then move those lassoed points, is the defacto standard in many, many applications. It would be something I would expect in almost every CAD environment and I think the expectation that Chief would behave the same is not unwarranted, but, and it's a big but, Chief works differently and if someone wants to become proficient in using Chief that someone needs to learn how Chief works instead of bemoaning the fact that it doesn't work like it 'should'.

 

Chief is singularly the most unintuitive program I've ever used and this is a perfect example even although IMO there's nothing really 'intuitive' about learning any new software program function. Having said that I've learned most all the tools and am very comfortable using Chief's different set of tools but the learning curve is tough when expecting Chief to follow a standard of some kind that really doesn't exist.

[HumbleChief]

I will do that, but honestly does it seem reasonable that such a basic function doesn't work if:

 

1. A poly isn't closed, and

2. Only if the poly is completely isolated....?

 

Moving poly points shouldn't be reliant upon those 2 things - we are talking basic function here.

I wonder if the strength of Chief's smart objects isn't also its greatest weakness?

[johnny]

I wonder if the strength of Chief's smart objects isn't also its greatest weakness?

 

Its like the success of their approaches on otherwise difficult modeling aspects (roofs, cabinets, etc) to make those operations easy caused them to make otherwise easy operations hard. 

[HumbleChief]

Its like the success of their approaches on otherwise difficult modeling aspects (roofs, cabinets, etc) to make those operations easy caused them to make otherwise easy operations hard. 

Yeah kinda just like that, though none of the operations are inherently hard IMO, just hard to learn.

[johnny]

I personally run into issues of editing poly points often - while trying to make actual closed polys.  The "edit area" really should be more a function of CAD for purposes of line edits.  The "edit area" is a great tool for other things I use in CA.