Viewing rotation in real time?

September 27, 2009, 05:16:24 PM

If I move an object, I can see the shape as it moves. But if I rotate an object, I only see the shape of the containing box. Is there any way to make the object itself visible as it gets rotated (as with movement) and/or is that a pro/deluxe feature?

Thanks!
Mark
TCAD V16.1 Designer

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TCW Pro 14.2
TC Deluxe 16.2 Build 53.2

September 27, 2009, 11:58:52 PM

#1

Pro & Deluxe has "Selector Properties" that has a "Show object while dragging" feature. That's a bad description of the feature, it should be "Show object while moving/rotating". Designer doesn't have any "Selector Properties" or this feature.

If you're seeing the object while moving it, I suspect you're dragging the object (window style) and is highly inaccurate. You should click on the yellow reference point to select the object, move the cursor (with the attached object) to it's new location, then use one of the various snaps to drop it at this new location. Unfortunately, if you move it the correct way, you won't see the object, just the bounding box. It comes down to "do you want speed or accuracy?".

You can also Tab into the Position or Delta fields to enter a new location (Pos), or how far you want to move from the old location (Delta) during the move.

The same method goes for rotating. Click on the green rotation point, then 'rotate and snap' or Tab and enter an Angle in the Inspector Bar.

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John R.

V17—V21, 2015—2020
Designer, Deluxe, (Basic, Expert, Professional), Platinum
RedSDK enabled
Windows 10 Pro (1909), 64-bit

September 27, 2009, 11:59:27 PM

#2

Drag the mouse whilst holding the scroll wheel down. The drawing appears to rotate - I say appears because, actually, your view moves around the drawing.

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Gary Wooding
Win10 64-bit,
TC21.2 x64 Plat, Bld59
TC16.2 Plat, Bld54.0
TCC 3.5

September 28, 2009, 06:53:03 AM

#3

Quote from: John R on September 27, 2009, 11:58:52 PM

Pro & Deluxe has "Selector Properties" that has a "Show object while dragging" feature. That's a bad description of the feature, it should be "Show object while moving/rotating". Designer doesn't have any "Selector Properties" or this feature.

If you're seeing the object while moving it, I suspect you're dragging the object (window style) and is highly inaccurate. You should click on the yellow reference point to select the object, move the cursor (with the attached object) to it's new location, then use one of the various snaps to drop it at this new location. Unfortunately, if you move it the correct way, you won't see the object, just the bounding box. It comes down to "do you want speed or accuracy?".

For precise positioning, I do the reference and snap thing. But for rotation, I wanted to visually inspect whether a moveable part would perform as expected when implemented. The angle is variable, so precision wasn't essential ... just an eyeball check.

Thanks,
Mark

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TCW Pro 14.2
TC Deluxe 16.2 Build 53.2

September 28, 2009, 06:55:25 AM

#4

Quote from: lemel_man on September 27, 2009, 11:59:27 PM

Drag the mouse whilst holding the scroll wheel down. The drawing appears to rotate - I say appears because, actually, your view moves around the drawing.

That must be a "Pro" trick -- nothing happens when I hold the scroll wheel down, whether I start with nothing selected, an object selected, or a rotation bar selected.

Thanks,
Mark

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TCW Pro 14.2
TC Deluxe 16.2 Build 53.2

September 28, 2009, 07:46:49 AM

#5

Works for me, I have both Pro and Deluxe and it's the same in both.
Perhaps it's a setting or the mouse driver is not passing the middle click.

Regards,
Paul.

« Last Edit: September 28, 2009, 12:20:28 PM by Paul »

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September 28, 2009, 04:55:10 PM

#6

Quote from: MarkS on September 28, 2009, 06:55:25 AM

Quote from: lemel_man on September 27, 2009, 11:59:27 PM
Drag the mouse whilst holding the scroll wheel down. The drawing appears to rotate - I say appears because, actually, your view moves around the drawing.

That must be a "Pro" trick -- nothing happens when I hold the scroll wheel down, whether I start with nothing selected, an object selected, or a rotation bar selected.

If Designer was a 3D program, that might work, but it doesn't work in V15 Designer either. One thing that will "rotate the View" is to hold the Shift key and use the Arrow keys. It will rotate the view in 22.5Âº steps. Hold the Ctrl key and use the Arrows, the will rotate in 3D. Mark, you should go to "Tools / Customize" and bring up the "Standard Views" toolbar, as you will need the Plan View (first icon) to return your view to normal.

Other things that may work is to hold the Ctrl key and drag the wheel towards or away from the drawing center for a dynamic Zoom. Hold the Ctrl & Shift keys while dragging the wheel to Pan.

I am amazed that Designer has all the Standard views (and they work), though the program is strictly 2D.

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John R.

V17—V21, 2015—2020
Designer, Deluxe, (Basic, Expert, Professional), Platinum
RedSDK enabled
Windows 10 Pro (1909), 64-bit

September 28, 2009, 08:17:31 PM

#7

Quote from: John R on September 28, 2009, 04:55:10 PM

If Designer was a 3D program, that might work, but it doesn't work in V15 Designer either. One thing that will "rotate the View" is to hold the Shift key and use the Arrow keys. It will rotate the view in 22.5Âº steps. Hold the Ctrl key and use the Arrows, the will rotate in 3D. Mark, you should go to "Tools / Customize" and bring up the "Standard Views" toolbar, as you will need the Plan View (first icon) to return your view to normal.

Other things that may work is to hold the Ctrl key and drag the wheel towards or away from the drawing center for a dynamic Zoom. Hold the Ctrl & Shift keys while dragging the wheel to Pan.

I am amazed that Designer has all the Standard views (and they work), though the program is strictly 2D.

Thanks John for the suggestions.

That is interesting, maybe even psychedelic, about the Standard views, but of course by themselves they're not very useful. Being able to rotate the page is also interesting, but doesn't help viewing the movement of a single part. Oh well, I'm starting to think about getting a pro version of an earlier edition, which might fit my budget.

Holding the control key while moving the wheel zooms smoothly in and out, so that was worth trying.

Let me ask, if I have already rotated a regular object, like a rectangle, a random amount, and want to restore it, what would be the procedure? I thought I could move the reference to a corner, then snap the object to a horizontal line, and then rotate the bar until it snapped on the line (near snap). But visually I could tell the rectangle was slightly off still, so I worked the rotation down in 1/100th degree steps, but that was a bit tedious.

Thanks,
Mark

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TCW Pro 14.2
TC Deluxe 16.2 Build 53.2

September 28, 2009, 10:14:55 PM

#8

re: Let me ask, if I have already rotated a regular object, like a rectangle, a random amount, and want to restore it, what would be the procedure?

You're close, but see if the pix help.

Move the Reference Point if needed, then move the Rotation Point. Hold the Ctrl key and mouseover the Rotation Point. When it turns into a Hand, click on the node, then move it to a new location. Reselect the Rotation Point (4-way arrow) and rotate. I held the Shift key to activate Ortho Mode, so any rotation movements were limited to what I have spec'd in Step Angle (Options / Angle). Clicked when it was at zero degree.

Hope this helps,

[attachment deleted by admin]

« Last Edit: September 29, 2009, 04:04:16 PM by John R »

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John R.

V17—V21, 2015—2020
Designer, Deluxe, (Basic, Expert, Professional), Platinum
RedSDK enabled
Windows 10 Pro (1909), 64-bit

September 29, 2009, 02:27:29 AM

#9

Quote from: MarkS on September 28, 2009, 08:17:31 PM

Let me ask, if I have already rotated a regular object, like a rectangle, a random amount, and want to restore it, what would be the procedure? I thought I could move the reference to a corner, then snap the object to a horizontal line, and then rotate the bar until it snapped on the line (near snap). But visually I could tell the rectangle was slightly off still, so I worked the rotation down in 1/100th degree steps, but that was a bit tedious.

Assuming that you know what the orientation should be, here's the way I'd do it.
First identify a feature on the entity you want to rotate. In the case of a rectangle, choose a side, but if there is no handy feature, draw a temporary line. In the attached diagram, picture 1, I've used a rectangle.
Next, draw a line in a convenient place at the exact angle you want the entity's feature to match. This is line AB in picture 2.
Now, using the Angular dimension tool, measure the angle between the enitity's feature and the line AB, as in picture 3.
Finally, select the entity and enter the required rotation angle in the Inspector bar, hit Enter, and the job is done as in picture 4. Don't forget that the angle must be negative for a clockwise rotation. You can then delete the unwanted line/lines.

[attachment deleted by admin]

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Gary Wooding
Win10 64-bit,
TC21.2 x64 Plat, Bld59
TC16.2 Plat, Bld54.0
TCC 3.5

September 29, 2009, 06:38:23 AM

#10

Thanks John & Gary! Wow -- two responses with pictures! Looks like two good approaches depending on the exact need. I tried them both.

John, let's see. One hand was holding shift. The other was holding down the mouse. Do you have like a 3rd hand to hit the print screen button?

Many thanks!
Mark

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TCW Pro 14.2
TC Deluxe 16.2 Build 53.2

September 29, 2009, 04:02:53 PM

#11

re: One hand was holding Shift. The other was holding down the mouse. Do you have like a 3rd hand to hit the print screen button?

I've clicked on the node, then released the button. The node remains attached to the cursor until I place it. I can open dialogs and make changes or go to another program and and take a picture; when I get back, the node will still be stuck there waiting for me to place it somewhere. I will admit to 'some editing', as I usually don't include cursors in screenshots.

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John R.

V17—V21, 2015—2020
Designer, Deluxe, (Basic, Expert, Professional), Platinum
RedSDK enabled
Windows 10 Pro (1909), 64-bit

October 01, 2009, 10:00:10 AM

#12

Quote from: MarkS on September 27, 2009, 05:16:24 PM

If I move an object, I can see the shape as it moves. But if I rotate an object, I only see the shape of the containing box. Is there any way to make the object itself visible as it gets rotated (as with movement) and/or is that a pro/deluxe feature?

I usually use the Examine tool but I have to click on Drawing Center in Properties. Holding the wheel down is new to me but acts like it works.

John B.

P.S. I haven't learned how to use the Quote reply in the new forum yet. :-)

« Last Edit: October 01, 2009, 10:02:33 AM by John B. »

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John B.
TCv2019 Platinum
Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
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AMD Radeon RX 580 Series

October 01, 2009, 10:52:57 AM

#13

Quote from: John B. on October 01, 2009, 10:00:10 AM

I usually use the Examine tool but I have to click on Drawing Center in Properties. Holding the wheel down is new to me but acts like it works.

The 'Examine' tool must be a pro or deluxe feature.

So, is the 'deluxe' version good enough to allow viewing of the shape of a rotating object while it rotates?

Quote from: John B. on October 01, 2009, 10:00:10 AM

P.S. I haven't learned how to use the Quote reply in the new forum yet. :-)

Just click on quote. You'll see square brackets. Like

[quote .... stuff about quoter]Text of quote \[/quote]

Just edit anything inside the text of quote that you want to eliminate. You can also get rid of any quotes-of-quotes by removing sets of square brackets inside the text of quote. Use Preview to make sure you have it right.

HTH
Mark

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TCW Pro 14.2
TC Deluxe 16.2 Build 53.2

October 01, 2009, 05:11:41 PM

#14

re: The 'Examine' tool must be a Pro or Deluxe feature.

The "Examine" tool is part of the Walk Through tools, which are for doing 3D walkthroughs. The "Examine" tool rotates your "View", it does not rotate the selected object(s).

re: So, is the 'Deluxe' version good enough to allow viewing of the shape of a rotating object while it rotates?

Deluxe does have the features to rotate a selection and view its rotation.

[attachment deleted by admin]

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John R.

V17—V21, 2015—2020
Designer, Deluxe, (Basic, Expert, Professional), Platinum
RedSDK enabled
Windows 10 Pro (1909), 64-bit

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