Re: Editing the length of a line

[Dave Conrad]

I have a diagonal line on a drawing and I want to make it 5" long exactly. How do I do this? Just getting started with the program and didn't see it in the manual or any youtube video about the program. 
Thanks,
Dave

[RowlandCarson]

On 2015-10-24, at 20:40, dtconrad@frontier.com [cadintoshmac] wrote:

> I have a diagonal line on a drawing and I want to make it 5" long exactly. How do I do this? Just getting started with the program and didn't see it in the manual or any youtube video about the program.

Dave - one way to do that would be to draw an arc centred on the end of the (already-drawn) line that you want to preserve, then use the arc to trim the length of the line.

Another way would be to draw the line the length you want using co-ordinates (eg 0,0 for the start of the line and 5,0 for the end) and then rotate the line to the angle required.

Finally, you could specify the co-ordinates of the end-points of the line directly - eg 0,0 at start and 5*0.707, 5*0.707 at the end for a 45-degree line.

Using a CAD application requires a different mind-set from a typical freehand drawing application. It took me a while to get used to it (must be abut 15 years ago now!) but any CAD application will repay some study in the results you can achieve.

Hope this helps.

in friendship

Rowland

| Rowland Carson ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...
| http://www.rowlandcarson.org.uk
| Skype, Twitter: rowland_carson Facebook: Rowland Carson
| pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/rowlandcarson

[Dave Conrad]

Thank you Rowland,I was hoping to find a box that I could select the line and insert the length that I wanted it to be as you can in inventer. I’m doing some parts that I will water jet at some time in the future.Thanks,Dave

On Oct 25, 2015, at 10:46 AM, Rowland Carson rowlandcarson@gmail.com [cadintoshmac] wrote:
On 2015-10-24, at 20:40, dtconrad@frontier.com [cadintoshmac] wrote:

> I have a diagonal line on a drawing and I want to make it 5" long exactly. How do I do this? Just getting started with the program and didn't see it in the manual or any youtube video about the program.

Dave - one way to do that would be to draw an arc centred on the end of the (already-drawn) line that you want to preserve, then use the arc to trim the length of the line.

Another way would be to draw the line the length you want using co-ordinates (eg 0,0 for the start of the line and 5,0 for the end) and then rotate the line to the angle required.

Finally, you could specify the co-ordinates of the end-points of the line directly - eg 0,0 at start and 5*0.707, 5*0.707 at the end for a 45-degree line.

Using a CAD application requires a different mind-set from a typical freehand drawing application. It took me a while to get used to it (must be abut 15 years ago now!) but any CAD application will repay some study in the results you can achieve.

Hope this helps.

in friendship

Rowland

| Rowland Carson ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...
|   http://www.rowlandcarson.org.uk
| Skype, Twitter: rowland_carson Facebook: Rowland Carson
| pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/rowlandcarson

[Richard Ellam]

Dear Dave
Rowland’s forgotten to mention that you can also draw a line from a starting point (such as the end of another line, or the intersection of two lines) at a specified angle and of a specified length. The tool to do this appears in the lines tools, as a box which contains a black line originating at a red dot, and sloping upwards to the right at about 45 deg, with a curved arrow underneath it suggesting the act of rotation.
If you select this tool from the lines pallet you are invited to select an insertion point for the start of the line, and having done this you then are asked to specify the angle of rotation and the line length. Hitting return a second time provides you with the line you’ve just asked for.
Remember that zero degrees corresponds to a line at three o’clock from its origin, and that positive angles rotate things anti-clockwise. So to draw a line vertically upwards from a give point the angle should be stated as 90 degrees, one going left from its origin point is at 180 degrees and so on. Fortunately for clockwise rotations cadintosh accepts negative numbers of degrees.
Hope this helps
Regards

Richard.

Richard EllamL M InteractiveScience Shows and Hands-On Stuffrichard@lminteractive.eclipse.co.ukwww.lminteractive.co.uk
On 25 Oct 2015, at 22:18, Dave & Theresa Conrad dtconrad@frontier.com [cadintoshmac] wrote:

Thank you Rowland,I was hoping to find a box that I could select the line and insert the length that I wanted it to be as you can in inventer. I’m doing some parts that I will water jet at some time in the future.Thanks,Dave
On Oct 25, 2015, at 10:46 AM, Rowland Carson rowlandcarson@gmail.com [cadintoshmac] wrote:
On 2015-10-24, at 20:40, dtconrad@frontier.com [cadintoshmac] wrote:

> I have a diagonal line on a drawing and I want to make it 5" long exactly. How do I do this? Just getting started with the program and didn't see it in the manual or any youtube video about the program.

Dave - one way to do that would be to draw an arc centred on the end of the (already-drawn) line that you want to preserve, then use the arc to trim the length of the line.

Another way would be to draw the line the length you want using co-ordinates (eg 0,0 for the start of the line and 5,0 for the end) and then rotate the line to the angle required.

Finally, you could specify the co-ordinates of the end-points of the line directly - eg 0,0 at start and 5*0.707, 5*0.707 at the end for a 45-degree line.

Using a CAD application requires a different mind-set from a typical freehand drawing application. It took me a while to get used to it (must be abut 15 years ago now!) but any CAD application will repay some study in the results you can achieve.

Hope this helps.

in friendship

Rowland

| Rowland Carson ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...
|   http://www.rowlandcarson.org.uk
| Skype, Twitter: rowland_carson Facebook: Rowland Carson
| pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/rowlandcarson

[RowlandCarson]

On 2015-10-26, at 11:39, Richard Ellam richard@lminteractive.eclipse.co.uk [cadintoshmac] wrote:

> Rowland’s forgotten to mention that you can also draw a line from a starting point (such as the end of another line, or the intersection of two lines) at a specified angle and of a specified length.

Richard - duh! Thanks - how silly of me not to remember the simplest answer!

in friendship

Rowland

| Rowland Carson ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...
| http://www.rowlandcarson.org.uk
| Skype, Twitter: rowland_carson Facebook: Rowland Carson
| pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/rowlandcarson

[Dave Conrad]

Thank you for the response, I’ve been playing with the program quite a bit to drive some stuff I’m running on our water jet. I wish there was a way to define a line as a specific length and then constrain it.
Thanks for the tip,
Dave

> On Oct 26, 2015, at 1:22 PM, Rowland Carson rowlandcarson@gmail.com [cadintoshmac] wrote:
>
> On 2015-10-26, at 11:39, Richard Ellam richard@lminteractive.eclipse.co.uk [cadintoshmac] wrote:
>
>> Rowland’s forgotten to mention that you can also draw a line from a starting point (such as the end of another line, or the intersection of two lines) at a specified angle and of a specified length.
>
> Richard - duh! Thanks - how silly of me not to remember the simplest answer!
>
> in friendship
>
> Rowland
>
> | Rowland Carson ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...
> | http://www.rowlandcarson.org.uk
> | Skype, Twitter: rowland_carson Facebook: Rowland Carson
> | pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/rowlandcarson
>
>
>
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[RowlandCarson]

On 2015-10-27, at 11:31, Dave & Theresa Conrad dtconrad@frontier.com [cadintoshmac] wrote:

> I’ve been playing with the program quite a bit to drive some stuff I’m running on our water jet. I wish there was a way to define a line as a specific length and then constrain it.

Dave - not sure what your desired work-flow is.

Are you saying you want to draw a line to length X then shorten (or lengthen) it to length Y? Why not draw it to length Y in the first place? The usual way to constrain the length of lines is with the trim tool. I sometimes make temporary construction lines to allow trimming other lines (or arcs) to length.

Maybe if you gave a brief step-by-step outline of what you’re trying to do (without revealing any commercial secrets!) someone here might offer a suitable method to achieve it efficiently.

CAD drawing uses different techniques from those I learned back at school in Practical Drawing. As a very simple example, to draw a rectangle in CADintosh I would typically use the line at an angle tool to draw (say) a vertical line, then copy that horizontally by the width of the desired rectangle and finally use the line point-to-point tool to join the ends of those lines. If the rectangle needs to be other than upright, use the rotate tool to turn it through the required angle.

And on the subject of water-jet cutting, I have been very pleased with the results of exports from CADintosh used on both water-jet cutting & laser-etching machines - see:

http://www.rowlandcarson.org.uk/aviation/europa_435/water_jet_cut.php

and

http://www.rowlandcarson.org.uk/aviation/europa_435/radio_panel_populated.php

for the bare panel and the final effect.

in friendship

Rowland

| Rowland Carson ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...
| http://www.rowlandcarson.org.uk
| Skype, Twitter: rowland_carson Facebook: Rowland Carson
| pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/rowlandcarson

[pyxis738]

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