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Tip - Using the Command line to get useful information from.

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 10:09 pm
by Clive
Hi Guys
In recent days I have had a lot of 'student' architectural plans and laser cutting files for model-making come through the workshop. With these 'laser cutting' files I probably spend 50% of my time cleaning up the files (editing, modifying etc.) and another 50% just getting frustrated with the 'mess' they are usually in :evil: - regardless of the continuous tuition students receive from me!
Anyway - one batch of recent/current files I am working on consists of site maps including contours and roads etc...

To the point!
Many QCAD users prefer not to use the command line or even have it showing at all, of course this is a reasonable and personal choice. For me personally I always ' dock' the command line in the right hand side of the QCAD window and will use it often. I would like to share with you an example of when the command line can be a 'real' help in the workflow. The command line will record and log useful current information which we can make good use of.

* Note, I would hope that at some point in the future there would be alternative ways of accessing certain information other than the command line for those who wish to not use it at all. I think a feature request may be added after this :wink:

My example
( for info the student is working at scale 1:100 for the model)
In this file all the roads are drawn with polylines and all the road widths vary (they may not look it - but they do and it is vital to represent the exact sizes). In this example I needed to draw in some of the missing roads.
using command line info 0.1.png
using command line info 0.1.png (20.35 KiB) Viewed 11981 times

The first thing I need to determine is the road width - using the Information Tools (WI) and the ' Distance Point to Point' (IP) tool.
using command line info 1.png
using command line info 1.png (43.97 KiB) Viewed 11981 times
Distance measured with Point To Point Tool.
using command line info 2.png
using command line info 2.png (50.37 KiB) Viewed 11981 times
This information is logged and showing in the command line.
using command line info 3.png
using command line info 3.png (76.24 KiB) Viewed 11981 times
Now using the Offset tool (OQ) from the polyline tool-set, I can simply copy and paste the distance info from the command line into the Offset distance field and job done :wink:
I get a perfect match :D ready for laser cutting.
using command line info 4.png
using command line info 4.png (60.98 KiB) Viewed 11981 times
* Note - this is just one of many examples of drafting methods where you can get useful info from the command line in QCAD.

Re: Tip - Using the Command line to get useful information f

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:18 pm
by Husky
Thanks for this good explanation. Everybody should go to know that!
clive wrote:I think a feature request may be added after this :wink:
For me too please :wink:
I would like to see the possibility to use the Information Tools and or to use the Property Information of an Entity (e.g. length, radius etc.) to get the Information for a new necessary Dimension. Absolute perfect would be the additional possibility for calculations like: Distance1 + Distance2 = (my new) radius .... :wink: