Hi,
I am trying to draw lines/smartlines by using a bearing (angle) and distance. I am going nuts trying to get this to work.
Accudraw: I can enter the ditsance and angle on the status line after hitting the space bar to switch to polar entry. But this way does NOT hold the angle I enter. If my crosshair is in a different direction, it often reverses by 180 the angle. Plus, when I try to draw a smartline it doesn't seem to care what angle I enter in the box below - it wants to snap to the flipping quadrants on the circle where the previous segment ended and the next segment begins.
Place line: I get a box where I can check the distance and angle, and this works better than the Accudraw which is somehow deciding for itself where to actually put the line. But, again, seemingly without pattern, it works sometimes first try, then next time something goes wrong. So I reject the solution, and the distance/angle is "remembered" and then the command works fine for that segment. So it ultimately works better, but it involves lots of clicks to make it work right, and I would rather have a smartline so that i can copy parallel.
Everything I do has to be exact. I have to label the lines afterwards to check. Because of the tendency to reverse my direction by 180^ I am trying to keep the crosshair in the general direction that I want the line to go. Problem it that it's often impossible to tell by eye what was actually drawn. It's drawing some lines a degree or so off - to the cross hair not to the place I told it to go. And yes, I have the boxes on the status line next to the distance and angle entries highlighted in order to lock them in when trying to use Accudraw.
This blows. I am having to draw each line two or three times before it is right. I came from many years of experienced CAD operation using other software. Where doing this is simple and safe and I would have been done with today's task in minutes instead of hours. So, since I am such an ignoramous when it comes to MS, I know I must be doing something wrong.
Can someone describe the safest/easiest/least amount of clicks way to draw lines by distance & angle/direction? I have Inroads, too, but the Inroads Accudraw tool doesn't impress me much either.
Please help before I smash my monitor.
david
It seems that Accudraw is trying to draw in a direction that is *relative* to the last segment drawn. I do not want this. I want *absolute* directions relative to the XY plane. Is there a switch or setting that controls this?
Also, I should make clear that the Accudraw toolbox as shown in Help,AccuDraw, polar coordinates is docked down by the status line - that's what I am referring to when I talk about entering distance/angle to Accudraw at the status line.
thanks,
I can get absolute directions by having the Accudraw settings dialog open and setting Coordinate Sytem Rotation to Top. But it reverts back to Context (last segment) after finishing each segment of a smartline. So I have to reset it every segment. Is there a way to lock this?
that seems to be my problem in general - I know where I want my line to go, but Accudraw wants to anticipate my moves and ends up putting it somewhere else. Almost every flipping time. Yet, if I turn off Accudraw then I have no apparent means of keying in where I want the line to go.
Have you tried keying in the quadrant, then bearing?
Quadrants: 1=Northeast, 2=Northwest, 3=Southwest, 4=Southeast
ie: 1 12;30'45 = N12 degrees, 30 minutes, 45 seconds E
Where do I enter this data?
David,
To keep the Accudraw compass from rotating as you draw go to the Accudraw Settings window, select the Operation tab and turn off Context Sensitivity.
Dan
You can also use the old precision keyins with AccuDraw by keying in the letter "P" to bring up the primitive keyin's Di=Distance,Angle (i.e. DI=1500,s46^15'23.45"e)
I Hope This Helps Someone Reading This! (Intergraph>PseudoStation>MicroStation user since 1980's)
AccuDraw is very powerful and helpful - if you get into it you wont want to miss it ever again. But you have to learn it and invest some time. I assume you are working in 2D. With the standard setting of "Context Sensitivity" the AccuDraw "Compass" is following your actions as you recognized. That is quite helpful in general. To "reset" the orientation to the View press "V" when AccuDraw is active - or "T" for the XY-plane of the currently active auxiliary coordinate system. Try out the setting Dan recommended and see if it suits your requirements. To learn more about AccuDraw check out the MicroStation Basic LEARNpath learn.bentley.com/.../ViewLearningPathDetails for "Using AccuDraw and AccuSnap". You also find diverse solutions in the Communites - Particularly check out AskInga.
One more trick is when inputting the "degrees" symbol of your bearing you can use ";". Just makes it easier so you don't have to invoke the Shift-6 to get it. You also don't need anything for the "seconds" symbol. So a typical key-in for your bearing would be N12;30'45E. This is for Accudraw. Try it out.
Thanks, Eric, that helps.
You're welcome David.
I created a handout explaining AccuDraw's Distance and Angle Keyins. Hopefully it will help.
Jeff