Hi Dave,
> i have always loved how ashlar do it and wondered
> if we could get something like this in moi?
Yup, you can have that in MoI right now! :)
To do those kinds of functions in MoI use a construction line.
Here is a quick demo using some construction lines in MoI for the kinds of alignments that you were showing. Note - if you want to get 45 degree angle snapping, go to Options / Snaps / Straight snap options / Snap angle and change that from 90 to 45.
You can get a construction line when you are in a drawing command. Instead of clicking and releasing to place a point, press down the mouse button and hold down and drag away with it still pressed. Don't release the mouse button until after you have pulled away. That will pull out a construction line that you can use for those kinds of alignments.
In fact construction lines allow for quite a lot of things that Ashlar's snapping does not - one example for mirrored snap points was shown earlier in this thread here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2136.2
Also using construction lines you can get things like the point halfway between any 2 points on the screen (instead of only along an existing edge), snap to any increments like 1/5 the distance between any 2 points, track along an elevation line in z in the 3D view, capture a length and reapply it from a new base point, and several other things.
One difference is that they do not pop up completely automatically like Ashlar's ones do - you need to do that "hold and drag" gesture to activate one. But that is actually another important benefit, because the automatic ones can just too easily pop up too many snaps and get in your way preventing free placement of points when you want to draw freeform curves instead of only lines.
Construction lines are discussed at one point in the Pod tutorial here:
http://moi3d.com/1.0/docs/tutorials.htm
And some details on them in the documentation here:
http://moi3d.com/1.0/docs/moi_command_reference10.htm#constructionlines
Please let me know if you have any difficulty getting the kinds of alignments that you want after using construction lines!
- Michael
