Automatic Construction lines created idea!

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Clive
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Automatic Construction lines created idea!

Post by Clive » Tue Oct 28, 2014 1:52 pm

Hi Folks

When creating drawings we often use (well I do anyways :wink: ) temporary construction lines for lining things up and so on, well in the following example I would like to submit an idea for QCAD to automatically generate these construction lines.

Here you see I am using the Rectangle tool for my example but of course I would hope that this idea could be used with all the generic drawing tools in QCAD. After placing my first corner QCAD asks me where I would like to place the second corner. I want to place the second corner at the intersecting point projected from the arrow points. Normally we can manually draw temporary construction lines to guide us.

Dynamic Construction Lines Idea pic 1.png
Dynamic Construction Lines Idea pic 1.png (5.4 KiB) Viewed 9470 times
... and we would be able to place our second corner precisely at the intersection of these construction lines ...
Dynamic Construction Lines Idea pic 2.png
Dynamic Construction Lines Idea pic 2.png (3.01 KiB) Viewed 9470 times

...but what if QCAD had the option to dynamically create these construction lines for us :wink: by simply touching the tips of the arrows construction lines could be created.

Dynamic Construction Lines Idea pic 3.png
Dynamic Construction Lines Idea pic 3.png (10.87 KiB) Viewed 9470 times
Now, I'm not a developer and this idea may just be a headache to implement, but it would be great if it were acheivable.

@Andrew, any thoughts on this?
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riverbuoy
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Re: Automatic Construction lines created idea!

Post by riverbuoy » Tue Oct 28, 2014 4:23 pm

Hi Clive

You can achieve the effect you're looking for with the 'Snap->X/Y from points' command. This constructs a new point by taking the X coordinate from a first selected point, and the Y coordinate from a second selected point.
So in your example, when you are prompted for a corner of a rectangle, type dot X (.X) which is the shortcut for this command. You are then prompted on the command line to select a point for the X coordinate. Select the tip of the down pointing arrow. Then you are prompted to select a point for the Y coordinate. Select the tip of the other arrow. A new point is created from these coordinates and returned.
The command 'Snap->Y/X from points' (shortcut .Y) is the same but takes the Y coordinate from the first point, and the X coordinate from the second point.
This command can be used anytime a coordinate is expected, so will work with all commands expecting a coordinate.
Hope this helps.

riverbuoy

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Clive
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Re: Automatic Construction lines created idea!

Post by Clive » Tue Oct 28, 2014 5:43 pm

Absolutely perfect riverbuoy, thanks very much. I was able to show this snap option in the snap toolbar, but it's got no icon associated with it - no matter at least it works.

Thanks again you are a star :D
X Y snap.png
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andrew
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Re: Automatic Construction lines created idea!

Post by andrew » Tue Oct 28, 2014 5:52 pm

Clive wrote:but it's got no icon associated with it
Good point, Clive. In the menu, no icon is fine but since everything can be added to tool bars, there probably need to be icons for every tool..

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Clive
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Re: Automatic Construction lines created idea!

Post by Clive » Wed Oct 29, 2014 9:35 am

andrew wrote: there probably need to be icons for every tool..
Yes it would make sense now, thanks again Andrew.
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riverbuoy
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Re: Automatic Construction lines created idea!

Post by riverbuoy » Wed Oct 29, 2014 5:42 pm

Hi

Here are my icons for DotX, DotY and DisplayDistanceAngle. They are not particularly imaginative, so if anyone wants to change them, feel free.
Anyway the files are attached.
DisplayDistanceAngle.svg and DisplayDistanceAngleInit.js should be copied to the sub-directory 'scripts/View/DisplayDistanceAngle'. A message will be displayed saying 'DisplayDistanceAngleInit.js already exists'. Select replace or overwrite.
SnapXManual.svg and SnapXManualInit.js should be copied to the sub-directory 'scripts/Snap/SnapXManual'. Again a message will be displayed saying 'SnapXManualInit.js already exists'. Select replace or overwrite.
SnapYManual.svg and SnapYManualInit.js should be copied to the sub-directory 'scripts/Snap/SnapYManual'. Replace or overwrite SnapYManualInit.js.

The icons should now display.

riverbuoy
Attachments
DisplayDistanceAngleInit.js
(577 Bytes) Downloaded 546 times
DisplayDistanceAngle.svg
(11.37 KiB) Downloaded 624 times
SnapYManualInit.js
(532 Bytes) Downloaded 515 times
SnapYManual.svg
(2.12 KiB) Downloaded 586 times
SnapXManualInit.js
(531 Bytes) Downloaded 534 times
SnapXManual.svg
(2.19 KiB) Downloaded 669 times

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Husky
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Re: Automatic Construction lines created idea!

Post by Husky » Wed Oct 29, 2014 9:32 pm

riverbuoy wrote:Hi

Here are my icons for DotX, DotY and DisplayDistanceAngle. They are not particularly imaginative, so if anyone wants to change them, feel free.
Very nice - thank you very much!

I'm always struggling with DotX and DotY - I don't now why but I take always the wrong one first. X instead of Y and Y instead of X .... :roll:

For this reason I customized the Icons for me and now I have not anymore an excuse for taking the wrong snap ........

If somebody else needs this - just replace the svg in the directories.
Husky-2014.10.29-01.png
Husky-2014.10.29-01.png (5.39 KiB) Viewed 9582 times
SnapXManual.svg
(5.95 KiB) Downloaded 698 times
SnapYManual.svg
(5.94 KiB) Downloaded 667 times
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Clive
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Re: Automatic Construction lines created idea!

Post by Clive » Thu Oct 30, 2014 9:36 am

riverbuoy wrote:Here are my icons for DotX, DotY and DisplayDistanceAngle.
Thank you so much riverbuoy, the icons you supplied are perfect, they do the job just fine and thank you for putting in the time and effort on this.

It is truly wonderful that people like yourselves would take the time and help out like this :D .

Regards

Clive
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