Hi Michael,

I'm laying out a concept with 2d curves at the moment and one thing I miss from my work program is 'Stretch' which has been there since the beginning when it was a 2d program only.
Anyway it works the same way as scale 1d but doesn't deform what ever you pick inside of the selection window, the procedure is execute the 'stretch' command, window the end you want to stretch, including other curves you want to follow that end, type in a distance at x,y or z and it will stretch that distance with all objects that were inside the selection window without deformation, it's like a 1d scale plus move all in one, I hope this is clear with the picture.
Is this something that would enhance MoI and benefit others ?



Cheers

+1

Sounds like a great idea, i would find that useful.

EDIT: Just tried and you can already do that just by selecting the points of the object you want to stretch and also the objects you need to move with it, and use the move tool or just click and drag. Is that the same?

Hi Danny, yeah like Rob mentions the way to do this in MoI is to turn on control points for the curves that you want to stretch.

Then when you do a window select, only some control points will be captured and when you move them it will perform the same result that you are looking for.

Here is an example:




The stretch function that is included in some drafting programs works in this exact same way, they just basically enter into a special mode when that command is started so that only control points are picked to be modified even if points are not currently being displayed.

For MoI just turn on control points first. As an added bonus, you will specifically see which control points are going to be modified before you do the operation, allowing you to adjust the selection if necessary.

- Michael

Thanks Rob and Michael,
That's great, it's so obvious when you see it done, but then Michael, it's a different story when you have curves sitting at an angle, a different method has to be employed by, turning on the control points then using the move tool, I guess it's not to bad, I'll have to see how it goes when I'm stretching a few things around and see if it gets annoying using one method for in line with axis' and another for angled curves.



Thanks again

Hi Danny, yeah you would use Move for that angled case instead of direct dragging. Or if you plan to do much work on that angled object, you can set your cplane to align to it and then simple dragging will work also.

How does your other software deal with that kind of angled situation in its Stretch command? Does it use 2 picks to define the displacement like MoI's Move command?

- Michael

Hi Michael,

> Does it use 2 picks to define the displacement like MoI's Move command?

Yeah it does, the only difference is that one command does both situations and it's numeric input not drag, one other thing is the work co-ordinates become live when you double click on it, so manipulation is easy.

Just one more thing, somewhere on the forum someone asked about when setting the c-plane that the views stay as they are, was there a script or switch in the ini to do this?

Cheers

Hi Danny,

> > Does it use 2 picks to define the displacement
> > like MoI's Move command?
> Yeah it does, the only difference is that one command does
> both situations and it's numeric input not drag

Maybe I'm not following, but from what you're saying there you can use MoI's Move command to handle both the axis-aligned as well as the angled case.

So if you want to have one command to handle both situations like you're mentioning, just use Move in MoI and it will do that, with similar picks as to that other Stretch command.

You can also move by a specific distance - type in the distance that you want and it will activate distance constraint to make for a specific amount of displacement. Or you can also use the "Distance from edge" option in Move to make the ending result a displacement of a certain amount away from an existing line (rather than displacement from the first picked point as normally done).


> Just one more thing, somewhere on the forum someone asked
> about when setting the c-plane that the views stay as they
> are, was there a script or switch in the ini to do this?

That's an "Orient ortho views" checkbox inside the CPlane tool :



That was new for the Jan-19 beta, if you uncheck that when you set the cplane the grids will update but the ortho views will remain in their standard world orientations so you will see an angled plane, rather than the ortho views altering to become plan views.

- Michael

Michael
2534.3 Curve Stretch gif.

No matter how hard I try to follow, the circle gets distorted?

Brian

Yep, you've cleared all that up, everything is good now.

Thanks

Hi Brian,

> No matter how hard I try to follow, the circle gets distorted?

Are you maybe clicking on the corner scaling grip?

You may have to look closely at the GIF, but when I drag I'm clicking and dragging on the control point in order to move it, rather than on the corner grip of the edit frame, which will scale instead of move.

But the control point and the scaling handle are pretty close by each other there, so maybe you are clicking on the wrong one for this particular operation?

- Michael

Thanks Michael

Brian