Rectangle question

Discussion in 'AutoSketch' started by Mike Council, Feb 17, 2004.

  1. Mike Council

    Mike Council Guest

    Being new to V8 and to AutoSketch in general, I have a question regarding
    rectangles. It seems that I can specify a line's length, a circle's radius,
    but I can't specify the height and width of a rectangle. Is this correct?
    I'm "roughing" a rectangle on the page and editing vertices to get it to my
    desired dimensions... and even then it seems that the coordinates are
    referenced from the grid origin and I have to calculate the vertices
    location. Is this the "normal" procedure or have I completely missed
    something?

    Regards and thanks,

    Mike C.
     
    Mike Council, Feb 17, 2004
    #1
  2. Mike Council

    Ric Norris Guest

    Select the rectangle command > enter first point > hit the "R" key......X &
    Y co-ordinates will then be visible.

    It took me years to find that out....you are not alone.

    Ric Norris.
    http://users.bigpond.net.au/cavedrawings
     
    Ric Norris, Feb 17, 2004
    #2
  3. Mike Council

    Harvey Guest

    It took me years to find that out....you are not alone.

    Nope. You're alone. Everyone using this newsgroup knows that, you foolish boy.
    Years? Save me!

    One can use R anytime to see what's there. Relative/Absolute Coordinates is a
    basic feature. Who knows? You wanna see where to go for the latest hot places to
    see newfashion shoes, or how to resize anything? Use R.

    "W" we won't talk about. Too complicated. But you oughta use it. It's your friend,
    like Paul says.

    I don't know... I just don't know.

    <holding ears, shaking head>

    H
     
    Harvey, Feb 17, 2004
    #3
  4. Mike Council

    Ric Norris Guest

    Nothing will save you Harvey....!!!

    I bet you 100 Algerian Dinars there is no mention of how to draw rectangles
    in the QC8 HELP files. I will raise you another 100 Chilean Pesos that 99%
    of our 250+ QC users don't know either.

    Anyway....isn't it past your bed-time....???!!! I thought the aged required
    rest.

    http://users.bigpond.net.au/cavedrawings
     
    Ric Norris, Feb 18, 2004
    #4
  5. Mike Council

    Harvey Guest

    Oh, poo.

    The Help files actually _do_ show how to do this. Quoted from the Help files:

    "When you type A to enable Absolute snap, or R to enable Relative snap, the Enter
    2D Coordinate dialog box appears. This dialog box allows displays text boxes for
    entering coordinates. The first coordinate is entered in the top text box, and the
    second coordinate in the bottom text box. When you finish entering the first
    coordinate, press TAB to move the insertion point to the other control. When you
    finish entering both coordinates, click Enter, then repeat the procedure until you
    have entered all points. When you are finished entering points, click Close."

    © Autodesk/AutoSketch

    Plagiarism is bad.

    [The aforementioned sentence is an automatic insertion from the programmers at
    ADSK when you copy Help files to the clipboard. Cute, isn't it?]

    Unless attributed. Then it's not plagiarism.

    So there.

    The issue is that it's buried deep in the Help files and it doesn't explicate
    how/when to use it. This newsgroup clears it all up though. Right? Use it whenever
    you wanna resize anything, anytime. Just try R or A when clicking on a handle or
    an entity. No telling _what_ one can find.

    Ric Norris blurted out on a whim:
    Yes it is past my bed time, but it's never too late to flame an Ozmaniac.

    H
     
    Harvey, Feb 18, 2004
    #5
  6. Mike Council

    Ric Norris Guest

    Congratulations Harvey.....you have just further confused the carp out of
    everybody.

    I don't see any mention of creating (specifically) rectangles in any of that
    mash. Perhaps the clue is remembering "R" for Rectangle and not Relative
    snap. What a lot of cods....!!!
    As for that profound snipit of advice.....SCALE. Oh, hang on....."R" for
    Resize. I get it now.

    http://users.bigpond.net.au/cavedrawings


     
    Ric Norris, Feb 18, 2004
    #6
  7. Mike Council

    Mike Council Guest

    I appreciate the insight. And for the record, I pretty much tore up the help
    files trying to figure this one out. The best I could do was determine that
    a rectangle is considered a polygon and should be treated as such. Guess,
    I've been living in the Power Point & VB world a little too much. Once
    again, thanks... and ummm, pretty sure you'll be hearing from me again.

    Mike C.
     
    Mike Council, Feb 18, 2004
    #7
  8. Mike Council

    Harvey Guest

    Mike,

    I'm looking at your question again. Sure, a rectangle is a polygon. I think you
    should look over the 2D coordinates screen again to see what's available. You
    don't have to reference a rectangle or any entity to the origin, that's brute force.

    What you should do is to relate your rectangle (or any entity) to the bits you
    have already on your drawing. More elegant, if you will.

    Look around in the Help files for using "Working Point." You can place an entity
    relative to anything on the drawing, and size it to your liking using the 2D
    coordinates screen, using A or R.

    If you're vested in this program, then you should try it out and ask specific
    questions on the newsgroup if something isn't working as you'd like it to.

    We're all ears when you choose to speak again.

    H
     
    Harvey, Feb 19, 2004
    #8
  9. Mike Council

    Harvey Guest

    [...] .....SCALE. Oh, hang on....."R" for
    Here's what I've done in the past.

    I set up the monitor screen such that the paper is infinite in all directions.
    View>Options, unlick Page. Now I draw whatever I want FULL SCALE! Read my typing.
    Tools>DrawingOptions and select 1" = 1". FULL-HUMPING SCALE.

    So now the drawing is done and I wanna print the beastie, and I want it to fit A4
    or whatever I've selected as the printer page. I go to View>Options again and
    click Page to see the real drawing page on top of the page. It will be a gemisch,
    the drawing all over the place, the Page a little bit of whiteness somewhere or other.

    Now I go to Tools>DrawingOptions Scale tab again and choose one of scales that
    might suit and click it. Then I look at the drawing to see if the drawing fits the
    screen page and move it so it fits on top of the page.

    If it doesn't I choose another scale appropriate and try again.

    I repeat this (it takes a few minutes) until I get the drawing on the page like I
    want it. Maybe I may want to Landscape the printout, depends on what I see.

    The caveat is that if you edit the drawing in the scaled mode, you MUST make the
    changes relative to the components on the page. Otherwise the dimensions will be
    verdreht (see Gerhard for translation).

    Clear as mud? My specialty.

    H
     
    Harvey, Feb 19, 2004
    #9
  10. Mike Council

    Paul Jackson Guest

    That's very clear Harvey.

    However, if you have a battery hoperated wireless mouse, you can actually go
    to full screen view.
    Then, to make it a smaller scale, that is with a larger number, go to the
    other side of the room and the screen will look smaller.
    Then use the mouse to print this smaller view.

    Ta Daa, simple.

    Paul GURU (can I have another wine please) Jackson



     
    Paul Jackson, Feb 19, 2004
    #10
  11. Mike Council

    Mike Council Guest

    brute force.

    Now that I have knowledge of this procedure, I'll approach further attempts,
    using this method.
    Just by sheer happenstance, the VERY first entity that I was attempting to
    create, was a rectangle. Lucky me!!!
    Meaning, if I've paid for it and don't want to migrate to another package;
    ie. LT ??? Well yeah, I've bought and paid for it... thinking that I like
    the Window's interface a bit better than the LT style command line. Plus, I
    couldn't justify the cost difference... especially for something that's for
    my own personal usage. A long time ago, I owned a copy of AS 2.0. I remember
    loving the way you could record a macro and customize toolbars, with ease.
    Evidently, AS 8.0 has changed quite dramatically from its' former self.

    Thanks for your insight.

    Mike C.
     
    Mike Council, Feb 19, 2004
    #11
  12. Mike Council

    paulthomas16 Guest

    That last suggestion reminds me of my fantastic money saving technique. I use a 15" TFT screen at about 25" from my eyeballs. I would really like a 17" for all the AS work, but discovered you only have to move the screen 3"closer for the same effect ! £600 more to spend down the pub ! (That's a sort of rectangle answer).
     
    paulthomas16, Feb 19, 2004
    #12
  13. Mike Council

    Harvey Guest

    <sigh>

    Somehow, it doesn't seem fair to engage in badinage with you since I'm at such a
    clear advantage with respect to cranial neurons and Weltanshauung.

    Except to say that my hoperated mouse long ago jumped off the pad and has been
    played with and eviscerated by our cat.

    Thanks for the advice anyway, Paul. Hope to see you soon in Perth, the town named
    by an English pooftah with a lisp.

    H

     
    Harvey, Feb 19, 2004
    #13
  14. Mike Council

    Harvey Guest

    Macros aren't available in AS, as far as I know (AFAIK) and you know that too.
    I've been reading on this newsgroup over the past 8 years that if you bend over
    backwards and stand on your head, you can find bits and pieces that suggest it's
    there in some form, maybe registry keys etc.

    But ADSK in their infinite wisdom has decided that it shouldn't be included in
    this package, probably because they don't want to expend the resources to include
    it. After all, this is a low end product with a small customer base. Makes sense
    to me.

    I can live without macros. Other people have other opinions.

    H
     
    Harvey, Feb 20, 2004
    #14
  15. Mike Council

    Mike Council Guest

    At the time, it (Macros) was a pretty cool feature, especially for
    repetitive tasks. I was doing a few electrical schematics and I configured
    buttons on the toolbar for the most commonly used symbols. The button click
    ran a macro for me, inserting the symbol, prompting for a label, etc. It was
    pretty much "point and click". Anyway, It suited my needs at the time. I'm
    just now busting AS8 out of the box and it's a whole new learning experience
    for me.

    Gotta' run... thanks for chat. Have a good weekend.

    Mike
     
    Mike Council, Feb 20, 2004
    #15
  16. Mike Council

    Paul Jackson Guest

    Hello

    If you give ideas of what you want the macros to do, there may already be
    commands in Sketch that are similar.

    Paul
     
    Paul Jackson, Feb 20, 2004
    #16
  17. Mike Council

    Mike Council Guest

    I don't have any specific needs, at the moment. I was just reminiscing.
     
    Mike Council, Feb 23, 2004
    #17
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