Hi isaac,

> Sorry i posted my last message before i saw you most recent
> reply.. You can infer to draw a line perpendicular to another in
> sketchup by hovering for a moment over the existing line.

Yeah, I have seen that part, it is kind of awkward but possible.

However, that is not what I was talking about, I was talking about drawing a line, with the start point of the line tracked away perpendicular from an existing point. Just the start point, not the whole line perpendicular.

Here is an example:




This is one part of the steps I happened to use above when showing how to do the polyline drawing of the box in the 3D view in MoI. When I tried to repeat the same sequence in SketchUp with inferences, I was unable to draw this line while staying inside the line drawing tool only.

- Michael

Hi isaac, I checked out your vid.

> Starts off just like you did but then all the steps after
> entering the height were inferencing perpendicular/parallel
> or lengths by hovering over existing lines no grid snap only
> point snap and inferencing

I guess I'm not quite understanding, this is the same result (wireframe anyway) as I showed previously right? (shown here).

You do it in SketchUp by using point snap and inferencing.

You do it in MoI by using point snap and construction lines.

If the result is the same, I just don't really follow what the problem is - use the construction lines in MoI to get that result and you will have what you want, right?

You can use construction lines in MoI to do all that kind of stuff that inferences lets you do in SketchUp.


Also, following your video there is one line segment that is shooting out too far, there doesn't seem to be a way to get that one aligned to the intersection from 2 from-edge perpendiculars in SketchUp. If you notice in the screencap I showed above doing it in MoI, every single point was precisely snapped into place without any overshoot anywhere...


Do you need me to go more step-by-step to show how to use the Clines to do the kind of stuff you want to do?

- Michael

Hi. Michael,
Yes i am refering to sketchup . you are right they are not called construction lines it is a tape measure tool but can be used in a similar manner.
Yes i agree 100% moi has a better construction line tool and it does a lot more than sketchup's can, but you sure can create one between any two points/shapes/curves etc.
What bothers me is having to clutter my view with lines other than what i'm working on(if i can help it) its just a personal preference and i also feel it saves a few more steps.

I must admit i had the straight snap toggle of a couple of times Thanks for pointing that out. I'll get used to it one wy or the other

The line that was overshot in my video is easily avoidable i was just a tad sloppy. I could have infered it better but i did not want to restart the recording. lazy me!

Ha!
I should not have made the statement about the house. It is possible to do without infrencing and without it i'd have to use the tape measure tool which also creates the clutter i want to avoid in the first place.

Please do ignore the request though...really. i will get used to moi's method.

Michael,

I really like your animated examples to explain various topics and features.

Maybe over time they will migrate to the online manual?

Ed

Hi isaac,

> but you sure can create one between any two points/shapes/curves etc.

I see - it works in combination with the Ctrl key somehow for that, like you have to push and release Ctrl to switch to construction line point-to-point mode? Something like that anyway, I got it to do it a few times but it is a bit weird.


> What bothers me is having to clutter my view with lines other
> than what i'm working on(if i can help it) its just a personal
> preference and i also feel it saves a few more steps.

Yeah, I definitely agree that clutter is bad - that's why MoI's construction lines by default disappear after you finish the current command.

You could create 50 of them to help draw the one line you are working on, and when you finish drawing the line your workspace will be completely clear again and clutter free...

Does that not solve the clutter problem for you?



> i also feel it saves a few more steps.

Once you practice it a bit, you can do the additional "click down, drag, and release" gesture really pretty quickly, it becomes basically one motion.

You don't have to click on a special toolbar button, or hit a keyboard key to activate it, and you don't have to exit the drawing tool.

The benefits to having it stay out of your way are pretty big, especially when you are trying to draw curved things and don't want a whole bunch of snaps locking up the workspace.


> its just a personal preference

Certainly I can understand this part. It's unfortunately quite difficult for me to make MoI work exactly along every individual's personal preference. I try to add in options for things where possible, but construction lines are a major mechanism in MoI - it is not easy to just implement an option to turn them off and use hovering instead, that is a major change in how the UI works, not just a variable that is easy to change in an option one way or the other.


> The line that was overshot in my video is easily avoidable
> i was just a tad sloppy. I could have infered it better but i
> did not want to restart the recording. lazy me!

I was following your steps, and I can't see how to make that one happen in SketchUp - it would require getting 2 perpendicular inference lines going at the same time and finding their intersection, like for example this in MoI:



The SketchUp inference seems to only be able to track along one perpendicular at a time and not 2 together to find the intersection... At least I can't seem to figure it out!


Anyway, I don't mean to attack you or anything, I just want to make sure you know about the stuff that is already in MoI to get this kind of precision alignment and snapping type points. It will let you get the results that you are looking for, it just may take some practice to get used to since it activates slightly differently.

The construction line stuff in MoI is kind of hidden away a bit (part of the problem of making something that tries to stay out of your way) so a lot of people don't discover it at first.

- Michael

Hi Ed,

> Maybe over time they will migrate to the online manual?

Yeah, I'd like to add more stuff like this to the manual.

Sometimes it is kind of easier for me to produce stuff in response to a question - some stuff like this that I post here in the forum will give me some good ideas for stuff to add to the regular manual when it comes time to work on that again.

- Michael

All that you show for build a box is some interesting but it's very more speedy to make a "PushPull" in SU or an extrude in Moi ;)
(if you don't want use a ruby box (or a component box) in SU or the box3D in Moi )