I haven't found a "Stupid" thread where one can ask questions that are just too stupid and where the bug sits in front of the screen. So here I go:

How to use the copy command with manual input of the target point?

I tried entering 1 number for an ordinary distance, absolute coordinates, relative coordinates. Nothing works. Copy works if I use the mouse to designate the target point.

What am I doing wrong?

hi ditto

1. call the COPY command
2. define your base point
3. just type in your coordinates separated by a *blank space*..
4. confirm with enter..
5. just repeat 3 and 4 to place the next copy..

cheers,
marco

hey marco, yeah!

thanks a ton! i stubbornly put commas between the coordinates. no good.

cheers, mate

hey ditto

no problem! sometimes things are really just TOO easy with MOI ;]

best wishes,
marco

Hi Ditto, you'll need to use a space for separating x y z coordinates if your language settings in Windows are set to have the comma character used as the decimal point separator, like if your language settings say that the fractional number 1/2 should be printed as a decimal number as: 0,5

That's because when you go to type in a point MoI also accepts typing in a single number at that same time as well which activates distance constraint using that number as the distance value. Distance constraint affects the next point pick with the mouse.

So for example if you type in 0,5 and your locale settings use the comma as the decimal separator it will be interpreted as the fractional value 1/2 and not as x = 0 y = 5 . Instead put in a space between them to do x y z values.

If you want to use comma values instead, you can make that happen by changing your OS settings to use a period (.) as the decimal point separator instead - when the period is used as a decimal separator then you do use a comma for x,y,z values.

The setting for that in Windows is under Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Customize button > Decimal symbol:



If you change that setting (note that it's a system wide setting) to have a period, then the next time you run MoI you will be able to enter in x,y,z coordinates with commas instead of spaces and for entering in a single number you would use the . character for the decimal point instead of ,

- Michael

Thanks, Michael, for these extra information. It's a bit messy here: I am using an english Windows7 with a french keyboard. System locales are set to France. But this does not change the decimal separator on the numeric keypad. That one remains to be a point. Which was fine for me, as I am used to Rhino, which seems to do number parsing internally, disregarding the locale.

Anyway, things are fine now for me, and I am overwhelmed by the quality and reactivity of support and help here on the forum!

Thank you all!

Hi Ditto, actually MoI does use your Windows locale settings - it calls a Windows function named GetLocaleInfo() to retreive which character is currently set as the decimal separator in the Windows language settings.


> System locales are set to France.

The default decimal character for the France locale is the comma, but you can customize it to only change that one character using the system dialog I showed above, while keeping all the other settings the same.


> But this does not change the decimal separator on the numeric keypad.

It doesn't matter to MoI what the numeric keypad is set to do - MoI looks at the setting for what character is specified as the decimal separator in Windows locale settings.

If that's set to a comma as it will be with default French settings, then MoI will parse something like 0,5 as the fractional number 1/2 . Again this goes by your system locale settings, not by what your numeric keypad generates.

- Michael