Lock Move to one axis only? [LayOut]

LayOut
1

So, i want to move only in one axis, to be able to align to another entity…
Seems like there’s no modifier key for that?

I want to align two entities to the same X.
I select one, move the move-handle to the point that i want to align, grab the selection and start to drag in X.
Now i get a dashed green line, i guess indicating that i do X-drag only… But how can i lock to that?
Then i could move the mouse on Y to the point i want to align with. Just as i do in SU…

2

You can do one of two things.

  1. Tap and release (don’t hold down) an arrow key to fix the movement axis:
    Right = red axis (X)
    Left = green axis (Y)
    Up = blue axis (Z)
    Down (SU 2016 and later) - highlighted inference (e.g., on edge, perpendicular) - coloured magenta by default
    To release the axis lock, tap again on the same key, or on another to change axes.

  2. Get the movement going in the direction you want (axis, on edge, on face, etc), and hold down the Shift key. Let go of the key to release the direction lock.

The corresponding axis or inference colour should highlight in bold whichever method you use.

1 Like
3

@john_mcclenahan The cursor keys don’t lock direction in LayOut.

Holding Shift after starting the move does lock the direction, though.

The cursor (arrow) keys can be used to move the selected entity. Single steps if you press just the cursor key, 3 steps at a time if you hold Shift while pressing the cursor key.

4

I’m so sorry - I didn’t pay attention to the forum category. Those apply in SU only. I rarely use Layout, so i don’t even know if it is possible there in any other way but the Shift key lock.

5

Well, for me, this locks only in a certain range of movement. If my mouse is too far off axis, the lock jumps over to the other axis…

6

What i try to do is align the two viewports, so the zero-line ±0.00 is on the same height.
So i need to move the NORTH view a bit down. i move the center-handle to my zero-line, and then drag the view down.

1462×870 86 KB

Holding shift, i can move the mouse quite a bit horizontally and stay locked to vertical (green line in above Screenshot). But if i go over too far, the lock jumps to the other axis (red line below). Only the mouse moved between the screenshots, so i would expect the lock to remain.

7

You sure like to work too hard.

Use the “center handle” placed where you want it on the viewport. Move the viewport until the “center handle” is on the references in the other viewport. Hover for a couple of seconds and then drag over to the side. Press Shift to lock the direction and move it over to where you want to place it. It’s very much like working in Sketchup.

Alternatively, if the top edges of the two viewports are in the same location relative to the model, you could just use Arrange>Align>Top. In your example there’s no reason the top edges of the viewports couldn’t be the same height above the model.

8

Thanks dan.

Argh, it feels like you’re laughing a bit at me…
But i see you try to help. I am just getting crazy about not getting my head around LO… Surely i’d like to work less. Or, work more, fight less.

I want to move down while keeping the horizontal position, which i loose, if i follow you the way i understand you…

Well, that’s what i would expect. But in SU, with shift, i would stay locked to vertical, no matter where my mouse is horizontally. But here in LO, as described, at some point, the lock jumps from V to horizontal, which is shown in my 2nd screenshot…

Darn, this LO is giving me waay too much headaches. I have read Brightman’s and Donley’s books, but it seems i still miss many key concepts of LO…

9

So, am i still missing something, or does LO really only have a partial axis-lock?

10

I initially did not get the explanation from dave:

Now i greped it:

But there’s a catch to it. If i repeat this exercise, i get different snapping proposals, i guess due to the slight differences in from where i start and where i move to first.
Most of the time i did not see the green snap seen here, but that’s when you can press shift to lock to X/Y movement as seen in the end of this clip (sorry, can’t record keystrokes).

This is also the big difference to SU, that made me stumble:
In SU Shift is CURRENT 3D AXIS (or, current direction) lock, whereas in LO, it is only a restriction to X/Y axis, no lock to the current axis!
So, i wonder if that brings any advantage with it?
Maybe it’s not a concisious decision at all?
I would expect that an identical behaviour between SU/LO would be the bigger gain over all.
(As i currently don’t see a gain of XY-restriction over Axis-Lock at all)

11

Have to say, I find LO quite trying when it comes to lining things up. You often want to lock to the X or Y axis but LO seems to have so many inferences built in that it often gets overridden by other things that you don’t necessarily want to invoke. I often end up drawing a temporary line that I can snap to but I feel that should not be necessary.

You have these four settings:

grid snap off & object snap off;
grid snap on & object snap off;
grid snap off & object snap on;
grid snap on & object snap on.

I don’t use the grid much and normally have object snap on (without that, there’s no locking of any kind).

It may be me but I don’t find it as easy as in SU.

12

I may be a bit late to the discussion, but I discovered that if you make an object a component, you can use component attributes to lock it in any direction you like, leaving the others unaffected. So, you could lock it in position on, say, the Y and Z planes, yet still be able to move it in X.

13

You caught that this is a LayOut discussion, right?