How does Sticky Z work?

I'm sure my answer is outdated...but if I am drawing geometry on a known (planar) Z elevation ##, I use the keyin AZ = ## and follow the prompts.

This is the "old" Active Depth setting, and it's always worked for me - set the Z and start drawing.

I have a very fuzzy understanding of "Sticky Z" (I don't work in 3D unless i really have to). The way the Help in V8i describes it, You can set your Z elevation (see above) and you can draw on that elevation - even if you are snapping to elements that are at different elevations.

Yes the help feature does describe sticky z as being very simple to use but it doesn't appear to work as described. I can see that sticky z is active but every time i enter a z value it overrides it and goes back to 0 every time I place a data point.

I must be doing something wrong.

As Ian said. Much easier just to set an ACS.

hmm, thought it would be much simpler than that...

Ok, ACS will do

You can keep it quite simple. Just turn ACS on and then set a value in the Z field. You don't actually have to create the ACS. Just change the value when you need to.

Ah, understood, thanks Duncan.

Sticky Z is to do with Accudraw's dynamic coordinate system... not the old Active Depth.

I would check if you have the setting on before experimenting...

"Whether AccuDraw's Z lock is sticky or not is a preference. It's not a lock, it's a setting that controls if AccuDraw's Z lock is cleared between data points or not. if you've enabled Sticky Z in the AccuDraw settings it should stay enabled. You do have to actually lock AccuDraw's Z of course for Sticky Z to be applicable..." Brien Bastings

Vid courtesy of Gred Eisenacher

I find it quite useful and better than using the ACS tools for a lot of things. The ACS tools are very clunky, compared to ACAD's DUCS for example.

One way of thinking about it is to imagine that the user 'double-clicked' on the Z toggle in the Accudraw panel to 'freeze' it in place. Sorry, this is a throw back to the pre-V8i days when we had to use the Precision Input dialog

Method #3 – Using the Precision Input dialog
Not available in V8!
The last method available to you is to use the Precision Input dialog which you can activate with the dialog precision keyin. From there, it's just a matter of keying in your coordinate values and poking the Apply button.

Mstn has accummulated a lot of powerful tools for placing geometry in 3d over the last 30 years.

Another method that may be of interest is using the # alias with XY= key in: I think that this functionality has been recently added to AX=, which is great news.

Sticky Z is to do with Accudraw's dynamic coordinate system... not the old Active Depth.

I would check if you have the setting on before experimenting...

"Whether AccuDraw's Z lock is sticky or not is a preference. It's not a lock, it's a setting that controls if AccuDraw's Z lock is cleared between data points or not. if you've enabled Sticky Z in the AccuDraw settings it should stay enabled. You do have to actually lock AccuDraw's Z of course for Sticky Z to be applicable..." Brien Bastings

Vid courtesy of Gred Eisenacher

I find it quite useful and better than using the ACS tools for a lot of things. The ACS tools are very clunky, compared to ACAD's DUCS for example.

One way of thinking about it is to imagine that the user 'double-clicked' on the Z toggle in the Accudraw panel to 'freeze' it in place. Sorry, this is a throw back to the pre-V8i days when we had to use the Precision Input dialog

Method #3 – Using the Precision Input dialog
Not available in V8!
The last method available to you is to use the Precision Input dialog which you can activate with the dialog precision keyin. From there, it's just a matter of keying in your coordinate values and poking the Apply button.

Mstn has accummulated a lot of powerful tools for placing geometry in 3d over the last 30 years.

Another method that may be of interest is using the # alias with XY= key in: I think that this functionality has been recently added to AX=, which is great news.