I have been trying to get uesd to Civil Accudraw after many years of using MicroStation Accudraw, and I am finding it very hard to do so. Is anyone else out there having the same issues? For instance, if I had a line at a given angle and I wanted to draw another vertical line from any given point up to my original line, this was easy with original Accudraw, using the index lock and a near snap. With Civil Accudraw, the behavior is different, and it seems like the only way to do the same thing is by using a Direction-Direction (unlinked) and using a lot off clicks to make it work. Does anyone else have these issues? I have other problems with Civil Accudraw, not sure if I am sold on using it.
There are a few known differences between civil accudraw and microstation accudraw. One which comes to mind is the RE shortcut where MS accudraw sets the compass immedietely upon finishng the E key stroke based on whatever element is under the cursor at tome the stroke is finished. Civil Accudraw requires u pick the element after the key strokes. Some of these differences (like previous) have been logged for future versions to make the behavior consistent. Some others are necessary differences due to the fact that the OpenRoads heads up interface requires some slightly different behavior.
I don't recall your specific example being reported. Please post a change request if you think it is warranted or for other inconsistencies you encounter.
Having said all the above, it is worth mentioning that you can use Civil Accudraw along with Microstation Accudraw. Just note that MS Accudraw will not make rules on the civil features.
And before you discount Civil Accudraw altogether, you'll notice that Civil Accudraw does things which simply are not possible in MS Accudraw such as distance,distance and various pairing of station and offset.
Finally, in the short term, you can construct the line you described above using perpendicular snap without any Accudraw whatsoever.
Robert GarrettSenior Product EngineerBentley Systems Inc.
Mr Garrett,
Thanks for your response. I have read that the original (regular) MicroSTation Accudraw should not be used in conjunction with Civil Accudraw, because of conflicting key-ins or other issues. It was my understanding that Bentley recommends not using regular Accudraw when using Civil Accudraw. I understand that I can disable one and enable the other, but that is not too convenient, is it?
When I read about Civil Accudraw, my approach was to use it as a replacement tool because of the added functionality, but I feel like I'm losing some of the functionality I've come to expect from regular Accudraw. I guess my original post was to seek other users that might be having similar frustrations.
Back to the example I mentioned, I may not have explained it very well. Please refer to the attached image. I have the yellow line in my drawing, and I want to draw a green VERTICAL line from any given point (1) to point 2, where the green line intersects the yellow line. With regular Accudraw, I would pick point 1, and using my index lock (enter), I would lock the line on the vertical axis and hit the N for nearest snap, and click on the yellow line. This process would take a mouse click, enter, N, and a mouse click. With Civil Accudraw, it seems to take many more keystokes and clicks to do the same thing.
Thanks,
Chris
I agree that it would be better to have consistency between civil accudraw and MicroStation accudraw.
The real benefit of civil accudraw and the civil geometry tools are the rules that maintain design intent. In your example I would create a vertical line from 1 and then use the MicroStation Trim to Element tool to intersect at location 2. The benefit of this approach (even though it requires more steps) is that it will maintain the intersection even when the yellow line is moved at some later time.
Also, in the case when you want to maintain an angle from the yellow line you can use the Horizontal Geometry tool "By Angle Line From Element" and then later change the angle as needed.