Express Tools Copym - evenly spaced copies

Joe Dunfee
edited November 2019 in 2D Drafting

I am trying to better understand the COPYM command from the Express Tools. My goal is to evenly spread a number of items over an area. Picture the situation where you have a known quantity of ceiling light fixtures, and you want to evenly distribute their light in a hallway.

Without the COPYM command, my approach is to draw a line down the center of the hallway, and then to divide it into the number of light fixtures x 2. Then, I manually palace a copy of the light fixture onto every other node. The COPYM would seem to be a better alternative, but I can't figure out how to get the same results.

Is it even possible to use COPYM this way?

(an image is attached that shows an example of the method I use now.)

-Joe

Comments

  • To get what's shown in that image using CopyM, you could use the Divide option and then delete alternate fixtures, including the first and last one.

    There might be other ways. I see there's also a Measure option and an Array option, and maybe a Repeat option and/or a (last) and/or (dynamic) option, but I can't figure out what any of those do.

    The trick to using the Divide option is: Don't press Enter or Space after the D. Just press the D key in between picking the two points. Then it'll prompt you for the number of copies you want to fit in that space. You can do it more than once if you want, and when you're done you have to press Enter.

  • I had not thought of just deleting half the fixtures. I don't normally have that many of them in the array. And while I was considering writing a custom program, I doubt it would save much time over deleting half the fixtures. Thanks for the idea.

    -Joe