How to change the dimensions of a solid?

RoatanBill

FYI - I'm new to BricsCAD using a trial version. I'm experimenting.

Assume a rectangular solid 1" x 1" x some arbitrary height. (I just ran the mouse up during the rectangle extrude)

Now I want to change the height (Z) to a known value. I thought I could just change a parameter, but apparently that's not possible or I don't know how to do it.

If I put a window around a solid, I don't get the parameters I was expecting. No indication where the indices are, no coordinates of any kind.
If I select only a side, I can see the UCS elevation but there's no way to make a change.
If I select all 4 sides, I still can't change the height.
If I select all the sides except the bottom, I can't change the height.

I want to change the height to 1".

I know I can PUSHPULL to top down, but I don't want to do the arithmetic to enter a distance.

How would you change the height to 1"?
This is supposed to be parametric modeling, so how do I just key in a parameter value of 1 somewhere?

Tom Foster

https://forum.bricsys.com/discussion/34253/2d-stretch-grip-edit-switching-which-is-to-be-the-reference-end#latest

RoatanBill

I'm on the trial version - 18.

An interesting read as I'll get 19 when I purchase, but for now nothing on that page helped.

I tried keying in from when it asked to specify distance but that froze the screen and terminated BricsCAD. Had 2 files open and lost my changes.
Started over on a new drawing and created a box.
Tried from again and it froze again. Booted me out of the app.

One more time. Tried tk and got booted out.
One more time. Tried tk, picked the bottom corner keyed in 1 and it did nothing.
Tried tk, picked the bottom corner tried mousing up till the display said 1 and it did nothing.

Maybe I should change 'when I purchase' to 'if I purchase'. I'm having lots of issues and the docs aren't helping.

ScottS

(Using V18.2.20)
I can use dmDistance3d, select the top and bottom faces of a rectangular solid, and then specify distance value to change the height.

However, this seems to work only the first time I use dmDistance3d on any given pair of faces. The solid does not change again if I repeat the command. Looking at Mechanical Browser shows Distance Constraints created each time I use dmDistance3d, but I cannot seem to edit the Constraint parameters.

I also can't tell how to control which face will move using this method. For example, using dmDistance3d to adjust the height, I get the top face to move (in positive z) while the bottom stays put. But when I do the same to adjust lateral dimensions, it seems inconsistent: i.e., positive x face moves in x direction, but negative y face moves in y direction.

RoatanBill

If I wanted to decrease the height of a solid, I discovered that pushpulling does indeed work without calculating a distance by hitting the TAB key to make the bottom face the distance reference point. Then it's a simple matter to pull up from there a known distance instead of pulling down from the top with a distance that has to be calculated.

Sadly, yesterday,using my personal machine , BricsCAD abended/terminated/failed, call it what you will, 11 times in a few hours, on a drawing I was working on. The logs (Linux) revealed the same pattern of failure for each occurrence. Every time I tried to pushpull 4 faces simultaneously BricsCAD would just disappear from the screen. Although I'm trialing the product, as a retired professional software developer I had to start incidents with BricsCAD support for all the weird things I've encountered just trying to learn how the product works.

Today, I'm spinning up a new box to see if my hardware and their support of it is at least part of the problem. So far, I'm not impressed with BricsCAD stability.

Roy Klein Gebbinck

@RoatanBill
Suggest you send in a Support Request regarding the crashes you experience. Maybe it is a graphics problem that won't occur when in 2D wireframe mode? Maybe changing the GLSWAPMODE setting is the answer?

Regarding your original question:
When using the _dmPushPull command clicking the Tab key will change the reference face for the Dynamic Input.

Roy Klein Gebbinck

@ScottS
You are using 3D constraints when perhaps you want to change your model with direct modeling operations.
It doesn't make sense to add two _dmDistance3d constraints between faces, which is why BricsCAD rejects this.

Regarding the update issue when changing the expression of a 3D constraint:
I have just experienced that very issue but am not able to reproduce it. However saving and reopening the dwg seems to fix it.

RoatanBill

@Roy Klein Gebbinck

I've sent plenty of service requests (incidents) to support including detailed descriptions, screen grabs and Linux logs even though I'm just trialing the product. They may be sick of hearing from me.

My video board is an OLD Nvidia Geforce 460M/PCIe/SSE2. The box is an ASUS ROG laptop.

I changed the setting to 0. I figured I'd start at 0 and work my way up to see where things improve. 0 allowed me to do what I couldn't do yesterday. I'll continue my drawing to see if it remains stable.

What I want to know is what impact does this variable have on performance? My box is slow enough and I'd like the GPU to do as much as possible. From the description, I can't tell what any of the digits means with regard to who does what - CPU vs GPU.

I'm setting up another test box currently with a Radeon video board. I'll see how that works out.

Roy Klein Gebbinck

AFAIK changing the GLSWAPMODE does not effect the level of GPU usage. If you want to learn more about your graphics card in relation to BricsCAD (compatibility, drivers etc.) you can use the _RedSdkInfo command.

RoatanBill

@Roy Klein Gebbinck

This forum is way better than the docs.

Thank you for the information.

ScottS

@Roy Klein Gebbinck
I generally do work with _dmPushPull and other direct modeling commands, using _tk as needed (usually without troubles). I like the Tab key cycle options—that's a timesaver! Thank you.

@RoatanBill
Sorry I've no help with your crash issues. Your question prompted me to try 3D constraints, as I've been looking for an opportunity to learn better how they work in Bricscad. Seems I'll have to spend some more time with them....