Hi Hammer, you can enter in dimensions when you are initially drawing an object.

Like for instance if you want to draw a line that is 5 units long, type in 5 and push enter when drawing it and distance constraint will kick in.

Or when you are drawing a rectangle and want to have it with Width = 5 units and Height = 6 units, enter those values in to the rectangle width and height options that show up in the upper right area of the window when you are in the rectangle command.

Same thing for a circle, if you want a circle of radius = 12, type in 12 and push Enter when at the radius prompt.

So generally to use specific dimensions while drawing an object, just type in the numbers you want and push enter.


MoI is not very oriented around adding in labeled dimensions (like things on screen that have some arrows and a distance value labeled between them) and modifying those after you've drawn something though, it's more focused on giving you control over things as you initially draw them.

But there is a new combination size readout / modify mechanism in MoI v2 though, it lets you see and also edit the size of the currently selected object:



You can also click on it to get a pop-up panel that lets you change the size.

See this previous post for some more illustrations on that:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=3013.2

That's new for MoI version 2.0 which is nearly ready for release. Once it is released then I'll update the trial version as well, the current trial version is for version 1.0 .

- Michael

> as well as use construction lines that I can space apart for reference.

For this part you would probably want to draw one line, then use Transform > Array > Dir to make copies of it along one direction with the spacing you need.

Use distance constraint to specify the spacing - to do that click in this box here:



To set the distance you want, that will make the 2nd point pick fot the directional array to use that distance for the spacing.


For some other things like drawing a line or a polyline you can just enter a distance constraint by typing a number and pushing Enter without clicking in that little box above, but for array dir your keystrokes will go to the "Item count" field that is in the ArrayDir options in the upper right area of the window, so for this case you need to click on that distance constraint box to set the distance constraint.

- Michael

Dont forget to go over the tutorials online here:

http://moi3d.com/1.0/docs/tutorials.htm

They will show you much you need to get started with how to draw in MoI. Stuff like construction lines. The 6 legged Pod is a pretty cool dude!

Thanks for taking the time to explaining that, I look forward to the new release!