How to display the next mline point in polar form?

William Bishop

When drawing a line or pline one can easily toggle the coordinates in the status bar from Cartesian to polar form. I think that, for most applications, polar (length & angle) is by far the most efficient way to specify the end point of a line. Otherwise, one would have to reset the origin to the starting point or calculate the coordinates of the end point. The same is true for drawing mlines but one cannot toggle the coordinates in the status bar to polar form (it's either Cartesian or off). It is possible to display the polar length and angle on the screen for mlines but this works only for a limited set of pre-defined angles. Am I missing something here?

Jason Bourhill

Hi William,

I think you are probably using Dynamic Mode (can be turned ON/OFF by picking DYN on the status bar). Dynamic mode has only been partially implemented in BricsCAD. Its available for the _LINE command, but not for _MLINE.

There are several ways to do polar coordinate entry. If you look up drawing accurately in the help, it should provide some options along the lines of:

Relative polar coordinate entry (turn DYN mode off to use)
You can type a relative distance@50<30<br>If you were in the _LINE command this would draw a line segment 50 long at an angle of 30 degrees relative to the last point picked. The @ symbol makes it a relative coordinate entry, if you omit it you will get an absolute instead.
This method works for cartesian entry as well
@100,30
would draw a line segment relative to the last point 100 along in the x and 30 up in the y.

Polar + Direct Distance Entry
If you turn Polar on by selecting on the status bar you can draw lines at the angle that polar has been set to (right click and go to settings to adjust). Simply pick a point, move the cursor in the direction you want to go and type in a distance.

Ortho + SNAPANGLE + Direct Distance Entry
If you turn Ortho on by selecting on the status bar, or by pressing F8, you can draw lines at the angle that SNAPANGLE has been set to (type 'SNAPANG when inside a drawing command to adjust). Again Simply pick a point, move the cursor in the direction you want to go and type in a distance.

Often it is easier and faster to draw the object using the default settings, then move and rotate the finished object into position.

Regards,

Jason Bourhill

CAD Concepts

William Bishop

Jason,

Thanks for the reply. I was aware of some of your suggested options but not all of them. I think that the "@distance
BTW, my primary reason for using mlines rather than plines with width is that mlines have pick points on the perimeter of the lines whereas plines do not. I think that a very useful entity would be like a pline with adjustable width that would also provide perimeter or edge pick points (snap points).  Or perhaps a LISP routine to convert plines w/ width to mlines. I think some such routines exist but mlines do not support arcs so the utility would be limited.

William

Roy Klein Gebbinck

William, I think the forum software has mangled some of your post.
Another alternative to consider: TRACE...

William Bishop

Thanks Roy... that first sentence in the post should have read:

 "I was aware of some of your suggested options but not all of them. I think that the "@distance
All this said, I think that a dynamic presentation of distance and angle should be an option for all line type commands (line, pline, mline, trace, etc).

ZWCAD shows this polar form for mline and the others, regardless of the angle (not just those angle which are pre-defined). Another problem for me is that Bricscad does not go into snap mode unless a drawing command is active (unlike Autocad and ZWCAD). I like my cursor to snap regardless of command status so that I can, for example, quickly spot check the exact coordinates of entities or various parts of entities. Bricscad should do everything possible to at least match the other CAD programs on all the actions available. ZWCAD appears to me to be superior in this regard (cost is another question).

William

William Bishop

The forum software fouled up my last reply (again!). It looks like using the "less than" key (used in Bricscad for polar angle entry) to denote angle, causes the remaineder of the sentence to be dropped. S0...... this sentence should have read:

 "I was aware of some of your suggested options but not all of them. I think that the "@distance (less than symbol) angle" is the best."

William

Jason Bourhill

William,

Coord display has three states:

1. Polar Relative.
2. Cartesian Absolute.
3. Off.

Polar relative only displays once you have begun a command, until then it displays cartesian absolute. This all works fine for me in V13 and MLINE. I would suspect you either had turned it off, or had started the MLINE command and was yet to pick a point. BTW you can right click on the status bar items to get more detail on their settings.

AutoCAD introduced the same form of SNAP (snapping only when a command is active) behavior with 2013. It also included the option of reverting to legacy with the SNAPGRIDLEGACY system variable. BricsCAD, as far as I'm aware doesn't provide an option to revert to legacy behavior.

I would raise a support request on any features you find lacking. If enough people ask I'm sure that it will be taken into consideration by Bricsys. And at least you'll get an idea of whether it is on their radar or not.

Regards,

Jason Bourhill

CAD Concepts

William Bishop

Jason,

Thanks for the reply. Please take a look at the attached .avi. I set up the window so that the coordinates display is close to the command line and then proceeded to draw a LINE, PLINE and MLINE in sequence.

1.  First checked the settings to make sure that I'm in RELATIVE display mode.
2.  Selected LINE and drew a line at 25 degrees. Notice that the coordinates display works as expected (displays length and angle as the line is drawn from the 1st point towards the 2nd point).
3.  Selected PLINE (w/ width) and repeated with the same result as expected.
4. Selected MLINE and drew a similar length and angle. However, notice that the coordinate display remains in Cartesian form and never displays length and angle. I tried to toggle the coordinate display for the 2nd MLINE segment but it only shows OFF or Cartesian. Double checked setting as RELATIVE.

Perhaps there is some other variable or setting that is wrong. I'm using the Pro Version 13.2.10 (x64) revision 30629 on Windows 7.
Also, thanks for the clarification on SNAP mode.

Best,
William

MLINE Polar Form Trial.avi

Jason Bourhill

Hi William,

Indeed looks to be an issue when using MLINE. You will need to raise a support request to seek a resolution. Suggest that you include a copy of your drawing file, as it may be something related to your particular MLINE style. Potentially could also be something related to your profile setting. To confirm you could try:

• Begin a new drawing using one of the default BricsCAD templates. Try drawing a MLINE using the default definition checking whether coord display works correctly. If this works, it points to an issue with your MLINE Style definition.
  
• Create a fresh profile and run BricsCAD using it. First repeat the test above using a default BricsCAD template. If this works, then try on a drawing using your MLINE Style. If this works, then it points to a setting within your profile
  

Regards,

Jason Bourhill

CAD Concepts

William Bishop

Jason,

The result of both of your suggested tests was negative.

However, I found that the problem was caused by the BricadTools application which I had installed some months ago.
http://www.bricsys.com/common/applications/application.jsp?app=335
When this app was unloaded and Bricscad restarted, mlines displayed properly in polar relative form. I tried installing the latest version of BcadTools with the same result. I have communicated this issue to the developer.

Thanks for all you help.

William