Have been struggling for some time now with moving objects so that a particular point on the object lines up with a point on another object, located on a different elevation.
F. ex. I have a bunch of pipes stacked above each other and would like all to end at the same point. Yes, I can cut them all along the same line, but that's not the point.

Here's the problem:
Dragging a point along x,y or z axis, by holding down the x,y, z key respectively usually works ok if there are not too many objects in the area. If there are a lot of points for logicursor to select from, it seems to get confused and ignores that I have selected travel along the x-axis f.ex. The point instead jumps around to whatever the logicursor thinks I want which is rarely along the axis I have selected.
So if I move something in Top view f.ex. I always have to go to a side view to adjust as it inevitably ends up at the wrong elevation. This is annoying and time consuming.

Same issue with the tape measure tool. I'd think that If I want to do a measurement along the y axis, by holding down the y key, the cursor would only travel along the y axis. But no, it jumps all over the place as if the y key had no effect at all.

Same issue with the Translate Tool, movement is not "locked" along the axis selected.

What's going on here? Am I mistaken that holding down a key should "lock" movement along that axis?

Cheers,

Mats

Hi Tim & Thanks for your quick response!

Your advise is good, but in this case not getting to the point of the issue.
In my case of the stacked pipes, I need to move them around independent of each other until I find the best fit - in my case it seems that a Top view is the best way to view it. But, the problem is that if I pick the end point of a pipe (end of the centerline) and try to move it along, say the x axis, it does not stay on the x axis, but jumps around (as if holding down the x key has no effect).
Sometimes it jumps around for no apparent reason. Sometimes it latches onto another point that is not on the plane of the x axis.
I hope you understand what I mean, if not I'll try to post a picture.

But in the bigger picture, the problem seems to be an inability to "latch" onto the desired axis, when holding down that key. It seems to be the same issue wether moving objects around by free-hand, using the Translate tool, or the Tapemeasuere - all actions using the same concept of moving along an axis (but achieving different goals).

So perhaps I should re-state my question; Should holding down the x,y or z keys "lock" the movement along that axis?


Cheers,

Mats

Edited by user Monday, May 9, 2016 12:59:28 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Thanks for clarifying that it should lock on to the respective axis. In my experience it does not, which has been bugging me for some time, but trying to present something repeatable is a challenge especially as I'm working under a deadline...

Perhaps the easiest is to describe my experience with the Tapemeasure Tool. Freehand positioning and Translate tool appear to behave identically.

F. ex. using the Tapemeasure, I select a point on an object that I want to move, say vertically along y. If I select the point, hold down y and move the cursor exactly vertical I may be able to get the cursor to "lock" on the y axis of the selected point. Most of the time however, if I veer the slightest off vertical the cursor picks a point of another object and starts following along that points y axis, or it appears to go willy-nilly wherever.
If there are many overlapping/nearby objects it can be hard to notice that you're not where you thought you were.... The point it picks undoubtedly is on another elevation (as happens in my previously mentioned stack of pipes) resulting in an incorrect measurement (or placement). The net effect is that you can never be certain that you're actually on the axis of the selected point.

Followup question: Holding down x,y or z supposedly "locks" on to those axii - how to move along a 45° angle axis (or other angle set in preferences)? Is there a key for that?

M

Edited by user Monday, May 9, 2016 3:30:36 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Tim,

the file I'm working has the same issue, in the attached file look at the object in top view and with the gripper active grab the origin of the object and notice it will not constrain the axis when you hold xyz keys.

Claus

Tim, everything is up to date 10.11.4

M

>> notice how slow the ambiguity popup allows me to select the desired object.

I've noticed that as well as I've been doing some testing with files greater then 1GB. When you move your cursor over items in the ambiguity box it does a repaint with the item shown selected. The repaint has very little computing going on, just dumping data over to the OpenGL driver &board. I'm going to look into displaying just the selected item into a window overlay, instead of a repaint, which should speed this up considerably.


Tim

Hi Mats,
I usually use the 'Distance' tool, which will give you the X,Y and Z distance from
point to point, you can 'Copy and Paste' these distances when you 'Translate' the
part, eg. center to center etc.
I also 'Hide' objects that are in the way.
Time consuming, but accurate.
Larry