Hello,
Is there a keyboard tool (similar to the arrow keys for axes red and green) for locking the movement of objects in the model “along” and “Perpendicular” to another object ?
And to avoid duplicating components when modifying one of them in size or shape is the “unique” tool the only tool? And if the same component is in another file is this tool needed ?
Pretty much. The whole point of having a component is that multiple instances all react the same way to edits. Make unique is the simplest way to turn off this behavior.
No. There is no connection between components in different models unless you reload them from an external file that you edited, in which case all models will see the changes.
Thanks, I assumed this was the case. I inquired about this because after recently creating volumes of buildings and fixtures of certain sizes ( using components instead of grouping them ), However, when I opened a new file–a different district of a city landscape, most of the work from the first file was reversed after coping and pasting the same component objects, deeming it a loss of time. So I had to go back to the first / original file and resize and/ or reshape them. So, it does seem the objects in the separate file have to be created from scratch or “grouped” to avoid the duplication.
The second question was about aligning objects with other objects by “Locking” one of the objects in a direction (normally along the green, red, or blue axes by using the “Arrow” keys). But I prefer to place objects together along the “Edge” as another option. I know the red, blue, or green axes, is preferred. But when there are numerous objects in the model file since it is a city landscape, then applying an object “Along Edge” or “Perpendicular” direction seems easier. Just need to find out if there is a keyboard tool (similar to the green, red, or blue arrow keys) that can be applied to “lock” the objects in the perpendicular direction or along edge, so that the objects aren’t randomly and inaccurately being placed. Thanks
Assya.skp (8.0 MB)
How can one object align with another using a “Perpendecular” direction or “along edge” ? . A file is uploaded.
By inferencing, just hover the cursor over the line you want to move along for a few seconds and you are good to go…
It not necessarily the “Cursor” thats required to find the direction for the objects to be placed, but hovering the “objects” themselves.
The question was:
Is there a keyboard tool ( i.e. the arrow keys which “Lock” the direction on the green axes) to direct the objects in a "perpendicular and “along the Edge”. There is no guarantee you can find the true line without this tool.
There may not be such a tool for locking the direction for a "Perpendicular and “along Edge” but it makes it a lot easier and doesn’t take long as it would when you’re hovering an object that can take an indefinite amount of time or impossible. Its simply trying to align the objects together such as window frame on a building or fixture.
The down arrow key can lock a movement ‘along edge’ (one tap) and ‘perpendicular’ (second tap)
The other key that can lock (any) direction is the Shift key, hold it when you got the right direction.
All directions other than the modeling axes need to be triggered (eg. hover over an existing entity)
Thanks, this helps a lot ! I know without this “lock” feature it would have been more challenging. While the other alternative for aligning objects such as on the red, green or blue axes that can be “locked” in place so the object can not drift off course… But when there are numerous objects in the model such as in a city landscape, trying to rely on the axes for each building, sign post, street lane etc is challenging. Thanks again.