Moving an Object to A Point Perpendicular to A Line

I am a new user working with MicroStation Connect.

I am trying to move an object to a point perpendicular to a line.
If I right-click in the Snaps toolbox, both Perp and Perp Point are checked.
In my AccuSnap Settings, Enable AccuSnap is checked.  Default settings also show Perp and Perp Point checked.
If I move the object, press the space bar, and click Snaps; Perpendicular is not checked.

Isn't there a simple shortcut key for perpendicular?

Parents


  • Thanks for the reply, mwlong.

    I am getting lost when you said, "tentative snap to the element you want to move to".  Being a new user, I am thinking you mean press the right and left mouse buttons and click on the object I am moving to.  Nothing seems to happen when I do that.  The X cursor will click to a spot but not on the line.

    It might be easier to explain what I am trying to do in AutoCAD terms.

    AutoCAD:
    1  Click the object I'm going to move
    2  Type M for Move
    3  Move Cursor and Snap to origin point of move.
    4  Move object and click highlighted (perpindicular) point for new location.

  • I guess you are thinking way to complicated on this.
    If you have a horizontal line and a vertical line, they are by definition already perpendicular to one another.
    So you do not need to snap perpendicular. You just need to move your line over.

    So for your example what you do is:

    1. Click on the horizontal line to choose it

    2. Choose the "move" command
      (either by doing a long right click and choosing it from the cursor menu or you choose it from the ribbon menu under the "manipulate" section)

    3. Then choose your point where you want to fetch the line (a.k.a. your snap point).
      Best here would be to choose the right end of the line. That would be a key-point in this case.
      So it would be a good option to choose snap-mode for key points.

    4. Move the line over to the vertical line and and snap to that line. 

    Important note and maybe your main problem: 

    If you want to keep the alignment on the y-axis the same, make sure to hit enter when moving the line.
    This will cause the accudraw to lock the axis you are moving on. (x-axis or y-axis, depending in which direction your cursor is pointing.)
    In this case here you should lock the x-axis. This way your horizontal line can only move on the x-axis even if your snap-point on the vertical line is at a higher or lower point on the y-axis.
    You can then move your horizontal line to the right and click anywhere on your vertical line and the horizontal line will be moved to the vertical line. Because of the x-axis lock it will not jump to the snap point but stay on the locked x-axis.


    I made a really quick screen capture to visualize it:





    In the Video you can see that I am only able to snap to two points on the vertical line. This is because I had setup snap mode for key-points (without a divider).
    After showing the two possible snapping connections I activate the axis-lock by hitting the enter button. You will notice that in the lower left corner, the value for Y gets set to 0 and now only the x-value changes.
    I then click on one of the two snapping points and this moves my horizontal line to the same x-value as the snapping point, without jumping in the y-direction.

    -------------------------------------------

    Currently using:

    OpenPlant Modeler - Version: 10.09.00.74

    [MicroStation - Version: 10.14.02.01]

  • Thanks, Florian,

    That is very helpful, but when I press Enter, the axis is NOT locked.  If I can get it to lock when pressing Enter, it would answer another problem!  

    I was not able to watch the video.  I tried on 2 devices.

  • Hey Koog, 

    I uploaded the video in a different format, hopefully it works now. (I edited my previous post with the video.)

    It is strange that your axis is not locked when pressing enter. The function is called "Smart-Lock" (of AccuDraw) and it is possible that this has been turned off somehow.
    You could check two things: 

    1. Is Accudraw running and activated? Are you seeing it after starting the move command, like in the video? 
      You can look into the help file under the topic "Activating and Deactivating AccuDraw" 

      There is also a shortcut on <F11> by default to turn Accudraw on/off.

      Here is a direct link to the topic in the help file: 
      https://docs.bentley.com/LiveContent/web/MicroStation%20Help-v15/en/GUID-F381F9D9-1325-A10F-97B1-9A4D0563CE37.html

    2. If Accudraw is running fine, then maybe your shortcuts have been changed. 
      Here is a wiki-article for an older version of microstation but OPTION 2 should apply to all versions.

      Beware that this will set back all the shortcuts you may have changed. 

      https://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/w/microstation__wiki/10590/accudraw-keyboard-shortcuts-such-as-enter-and-space-do-not-work

      (Also it is to mention that in this older version of microstation the space bar was used to switch the mode of accudraw to polar-coordinates and back. This button has been changed to "M" in Connect Edition by default. Spacebar is now used for the pop-up menu.) 

      You can find a complete list of the accudraw shortcuts either by hitting the "?`" while you are inside of an accudraw field with your cursor, or by looking in the help file under: "Complete List of AccuDraw Shortcut Key-Ins"

      Direct Link: 
      https://docs.bentley.com/LiveContent/web/MicroStation%20Help-v15/en/GUID-F954C772-A9B3-79A5-8441-AEC7EA77DCB0.html

    I hope you will find the right option. 
    Also have a look into the AccuDraw functions. It is the central tool in microstation and comes in really handy once you are used to work with it :) 

    -------------------------------------------

    Currently using:

    OpenPlant Modeler - Version: 10.09.00.74

    [MicroStation - Version: 10.14.02.01]

  • AccuDraw Smart Lock was NOT checked in the menu pop-up when I right-click on SmartLock.

    I turned it on.  It is checked.

    Now, if I press F11, AccuDraw remains checked (does not seem to toggle on/off)

    When I press Enter to lock the axis, I was getting a menu poping up (in the way).

    I tried to see what menu it was, but now when I try to move, the object relocates to 0,0 and moves from there instead of it's original position.  

  • Hey Koog,

    sorry to hear that it is not working on your side.

    The pop up menu you saw is the "key-in" window. In this window you can enter text based commands.
    By default this comes up if your focus mode is on "home" and you hit enter.
    If you want to know more about the focus mode and how it effects keyboard inputs then I have linked two articles at the bottom.

    Anyways:
    It seems that something regarding your AccuDraw is different from the standard-settings and we need to find it.

    Is it possible for you to make a screen-capture like I did in one of the previous posts?
    That way we could see what is happening on your screen when you try tu use accu draw. Maybe we can find something there.


    If not it would be nice to know at what step the behaviour differs from my video.

    Is the accudraw showing up when after choosing the move command and then clicking on a point on the horizontal line?
    If not, maybe the setting is switched off and you can follow the wiki-article and have a look at the additional ones below:

    AccuDraw - Compass not showing
    communities.bentley.com/.../accudraw-compass-is-not-showing

    Many more AccuDraw Wiki-Topics
    communities.bentley.com/.../accudraw---drawing-aids---microstation

    You said that you are new to Microstation, so if you need general information about the behaviour of the accudraw and how it works, the following videos could help.

    Here is one where moving and copying are shown. It was done in an older version of microstation but the accudraw was not changed between the V8i-version and Connect-Edition.

    AccuDraw Basics on Youtube

    Here is another one, directly from bentley and done in Connect-Edition. In this video the accudraw is used to draw smart-lines.
    The interesting part for you starts at the 2 Minute Mark - While drawing a (smart-)line the accudraw functions are explained:

    Bentley - Element creation with AccuDraw - Connect Edition


    As mentioned before it could also be that the focus is not on accudraw because you are missing a step or you are doing too much, switching the focus to something else.
    So maybe the information about the focus mode and having a look at it can help.

    Microstation has different input focus modes, which control where your keyboard input is directed.
    You can find an icon that indicates the focus mode down in the right corner of your microstation window.
    It is the 4th or 5th one from the right. When moving the line the focus symbol should switch to the accudraw symbol (small blue square with red and green x- and y-axis).

    Here are some short articles to read more about that topic:
    Controlling the focus (Help-File): docs.bentley.com/.../GUID-65E1B66D-D001-3E77-E8E0-E4E9CA100CAB.html

    Using it! Input Focus (old blog article): communities.bentley.com/.../using-it-input-focus

    -------------------------------------------

    Currently using:

    OpenPlant Modeler - Version: 10.09.00.74

    [MicroStation - Version: 10.14.02.01]

  • Florian,

    I was able to spend some time looking into AccuDraw.  Your information helped me get through the issues and  re-focus.  Maybe I will respond directly to the issues above later.

    Thanks,

    Koog

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