From Snap

Scott McKenzie

 I am running V13.2.9-2 and I have never (since V11) been able to get my From snap to work with polar tracking - instead I have to type @x,y,z after choosing my from point.  Are there any other users out there experiencing the same problem?  I have seen a video sent by the support request team showing that it does in fact work, so, maybe there is a setting that I have turned off somewhere?

Roy Klein Gebbinck

I don't know the video you are referring to, but it may in fact show an example of (Entity) Snap Tracking. When using Snap Tracking you do not use the FROM snap. All you have to do is hover over the point you want to use as an (additional) track point. After a short amount of time a small '+' will appear on the point and tracks will be displayed. You can read more about this in the Polar Tracking and Snap Tracking sections in the Help. Right-clicking on the appropriate buttons in the Status Bar will bring up the settings that control this.

Scott McKenzie

Ahh very cool, I did not know about just hovering over a point when using the stracking. It sounds like I am not using the from snap as it was intended, any examples showing its proper use?

Roy Klein Gebbinck

Besides using the FROM snap with '@' you can also use it in combination with the PERPENDICULAR snap as the image demonstrates. These are the two 'proper' ways of using FROM that I know.

from_snap_example.png

Scott McKenzie

 Oh, OK, that makes sense, thanks for the help Roy.

Graham Hutchinson

This is very helpful to me also, thank you.  One thing that I have not figured out how to do is, for example, to draw a circle that has its origin say 3" down and 2" to the right of the top left corner of a rectangle.  The top left of the rectangle is already defined, but an imaginary point 3" down is not.  I have come from Visual Cadd and you use TK to start tracking, and you keep tracking until you type PU.  So you can have as many legs in the track as you like.  Thanks in advance for any direction.

Robt Deans

Us the "From" command as mentioned above. @X,Y.

In your case: From (select corner of rect.) @2,-3 Enter.

Graham Hutchinson

Thanks for the tip.  Is there a way to quickly set the base polar angle = to the angle of an object in the drawing.  Let's say that the side of the rectangle was at an angle of 106.259° and I want to draw the circle with the origin 3" down parallel to the side and 2" over parallel to the top.  If I can set the base polar angle rapidly to 106.259 then the from snap and @2,-3 will work fine.  Thanks again.

Robt Deans

"Is there a way to quickly set the base polar angle = to the angle of an object in the drawing.."
Check out the "UCS" command where you can align it to any selectable Entity, or by selecting two points.
After done working with skewed geometry, again "UCS" Enter "P" (previous), to continue working with original Ortho.
(Make sure "UCSICON" is turned "ON" to see what you're doing).

Scott McKenzie

 Just wanted to pop this thread back up to the top of the stack as it is making me have to do a lot more steps to accomplish a task.  I am unable to move something from a point using polar tracking, I have filed a support request in the past and the developers are able to, so it must be a setting that I am missing.  As an example, what I am having to do now:

COMMAND: move

Select entities to move: 

Opposite Corner: 

Entities in set: 2

Select entities to move: 

Enter base point: : 

Enter second point: : from

Base point: 

Offset or regular point: 

After entering From at the command line, polar tracking is still working, however as soon as I pick my base point the polar tracking turns off.  I have the following settings set for polar tracking:

Autosnap: 63

Polarmode: 4

I don't really know what else to look for to test, I have tried the options for polar mode with no changes in behaviour in this regaurd.  I have been hovering over a point and waiting for the little cross to appear, at which point I can track from that point, but this process is a bit slow for my taste...

Louis_Verdonck

 Did you ever try the TT and TK keyboard entries that allows to specify temporary tracking points? Whenever a command prompts for a point you can type TT in the command bar to specify a single temporary tracking point or TK to specify multiple temporary tracking points. You can read more about this in the BricsCAD Help under User Guide > Drawing Accurately > Polar Tracking > Using Temporary Tracking Points. This feature was introduced in V14.1.

Scott McKenzie

Just tried it now, using the TT command works great to allow using polar tracking off of a specified point.  Just tried out the TK command while drawing a line and am getting odd results, if you hit enter after choosing your last tracking point the line is automatically drawn to the last temporary tracking point selected - maybe i'm doing something wrong, or maybe this is how it is supposed to work...

Louis_Verdonck

@Scott McKenzie:

... if you hit enter after choosing your last tracking point the line is automatically drawn to the last temporary tracking point selected - maybe i'm doing something wrong, or maybe this is how it is supposed to work...

Yes, that's how it is supposed to work. BricsCAD keeps prompting for additional temporary tracking points until you hit the Enter key or right click, thus accepting the last point.

Scott McKenzie

I just stumbled upon the reason behind the polar tracking vectors not appearing after selecting your point using the FROM command.  The COORDS variable must be set to 2 in order to see polar tracking vectors from your selected FROM point, having this variable set to 1 or 0 will not show the tracking vectors.

Scott McKenzie

That should be COORDS set to 0 or 2 to see your polar vectors emanating from your selected FROM point.