Placing a column? (not exact)

[rob@dpi]

How do you place objects in an exact location? I've inserted a basic column from my library (12" square) but when I try to place it and line it up with two walls I cant get it to snap or align to any of the walls. I cant strike any dimensions to these columns either. This is basically an entry with square columns... pretty simple? Lost here????

Appreciate any help.

[louis]

Look at the video at.

http://www.lfcompany.com

[Draw4Food]

One nice thing about Datacad is that you can create a symbol (cad object) and choose a reference point when you save it. Then when you place the symbol, it positions it such that the reference point is at the same location as the cursor, or if you snap to an object, the reference point is at the snap point. It is VERY handy in some instances.

Possibly this could be incorporated in a future version of Chief?

Allan

[Jorge Araya]

I'm trying to understand your situation, do you have the snap off? and it does not snaps? or you are forgetting about the "invisible snapping grid" built in, it may be snapping to that, select unrestricted positioning and fine tune your columns.

[Jay Palmer]

Originally posted by Draw4Food
One nice thing about Datacad is that you can create a symbol (cad object) and choose a reference point when you save it. Then when you place the symbol, it positions it such that the reference point is at the same location as the cursor, or if you snap to an object, the reference point is at the snap point. It is VERY handy in some instances.

Possibly this could be incorporated in a future version of Chief?

Allan

If you want a symbol to be centered at a specific set of coordinates, you can use the "Input Point" tool to place a point at that exact set of coordinates and then snap the symbol by its center to that same coordinate by Shift-Selecting the symbol.

CAD shapes can be snapped to endpoints and midpoints as well, so they can be used as guides to assist in locating other symbols by being placed first or by being group selected with the symbols.

Jay

[Draw4Food]

Jay, you might be addressing my concern and I could be missing it, so I will restate what I was meaning to clear up confusion. I know how to manually move cad blocks using tricks like lewis was kind enough to provide in his video, but I think it could be easier.

I would like to be able to place cad objects so that they are positioned on an off-center point. I will post an example. The "property pin" object contains text and the two circles, and I want to place it so that the circle is centered at the intersection of the two lines. It isn't really a huge deal to place it close and manually move it into position, but with DataCAD I could define the center of the circle as the placement point, then when the cursor snaped to the intersection I could just click the mouse key and it would be placed in the proper position. That is particularly helpful when you have, for example, a pin where a straight segment and curved segment meet, and it is not easily discernable where that point is. With my old method, all the property pins for a complex lot could be placed in seconds instead of several minutes. Multiply by all the other objects you would like to be able to place accurately (cross section details, foundation wall block-outs, etc) and it's a fair amount of time. I mentioned this in another thread and I was told to "try a little harder" but if you knew how much better it was to place objects this way you would all be begging for it. (unless I am misunderstanding the way to do it, of course) I admit I am a fanatic about reducing keystrokes, but it really makes a lot of difference in the long run.

I envision the solution being something like this: When you draw an object, you could place a live cad marker at the place you wanted the thing to "land", then save it as a symbol. Then when placing it, if a snap point was highlighted, it would place the object so the marker landed on the snap point. Might be easier to say than program, though.

Allan

[Jay Palmer]

Alan -

No, I did understand what you wrote and I agree that it would be nice to be able to have the option of specifying a reference point for symbols - both 3D objects and 2D CAD blocks. Not knowing you or how familiar you are with Chief, however, I was merely suggesting a fairly quick way to position a 3D symbol with some precision, albeit not as efficiently as other CAD programs, including DataCAD and AutoCAD, amongst others.

As to your particular situation, there is a way to make placement of the "Property Pin" 2D CAD Block a little bit easier, even though not as automatic as you'd like:

1. Surround the pin object and the text with a CAD box dimensioned and placed such that the center of the pin circles are at the center of the CAD box;
2. Set the color of the box to white so that it's not visible; and
3. Create a block from the pin circles, the text, and the CAD box.

Now when you select the CAD block from the Library Browser and click at the intersection of the two lines to place the block, it will be positioned such that the pin circles will be where you clicked, since Chief will place the center of a CAD block where you click to place it in a plan. For precision, you can place the block near the lines, select it, and then drag the center of the CAD block to the intersection of the two lines; the endpoint snap will place the center of the CAD block exactly where the lines intersect.

Regards,

Jay

[Draw4Food]

That is a great solution, Jay!!

Thanks a lot!!!!!

That accomplishes the majority of what I was after. Placing on a snap point is the only thing left, but it is easy to drag it to snap in the correct location after placing it close.

I used a "circle about center" to enclose the elements I wanted in the block, and used the "non-line" linetype. Very quick and easy.

Woohoo!!

Allan

[Jay Palmer]

Glad to help...

Jay

[zoome]

AutoCAD has a feature where you specify an insertion point when you create a block with the Write Block Function (wblock). This point can be used as a snap point on insertion and for moving/coping after insertion.

This feature has been around for as long as I can remember ... 20 minutes or so ... .

This is a nice feature ... ART should consider a similar feature.

Zoome

[Jay Palmer]

That's what Allan is talking about (DataCAD has the same capability) and it would be a good thing...