In the title I meant that I don't want any minus zero area. Amazing how one missed word can change everything. Apparently I can't edit the title!

I need to set the size of the modeling area to 97" in x and 49" in y. I don't require any minus x or y or z values.

How can I do this?

Thanks in advance,

Gary

Take any view no 3D
You can draw a rectangle 97"*49" from the origin inside the positive quarter
Select your rectangle
Button Reset
You can now draw inside
You have that you want ;)

Hi There,

Yes, but I have no grid, which I need. How can I get the model area grid that big?

Gary

Just enable the Grid, Button Options
You can input some dimension to your grid but seems that is a Square grid so not efficient for your particular case

The normal grid by default will be sufficient ;)
As you draw only inside the positive quadrant

Hi Gary - Try options and then select Grid. You may have to model with negative values until your model is complete, then do a select all and grab the lower left most end point, then drag everything over by that point it to the origin (0,0,0) then when you save or export all of the objects should be positive values.

Martin

Thanks Martin,

That certainly does the trick.

Gary

Hi Gary, did you get the grid set up the way you needed?

The default grid should extend far enough to cover a 97"x49" area - by default the grid will have 150 lines stepping out from the origin point.

When you say you had "no grid" do you mean your grid was just turned off? If so then just go to Options > Grid and turn on "Show grid" to re-enable the grid display again.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Almost.

I did have the grid turned on. I could create a rectangle that was 97 by 49 but the grid only extended 12 by 12 inches on the positive side of X and Y which was 1/4 of the grid that was shown. I had the grid sections set to 100. When I realised what the grid section parameter did I set it to 800 which gives me X=100" by Y=100" using a grid size of 1/8" (0.125").

This also displays the same grid from X=-100" by Y=100" to X=100" by Y=-100". For my purposes this seems to be occupying 75% more resources than are required on the X Y plane. Then when you factor in the Z= values the figures become staggering in coordinate points supported. The Z values extend up or down by 100" in 1/8" increments. WOW! That's a lot of coordinate points that aren't used.

As far as usability of the grid goes I am happy with this situation, it just doesn't seem economical.

Again I must thank the forum participants for helping me to get a little further along the learning curve.

3d design certainly is foreign to someone like me who has worked on 2D design for twenty years, then passing these files to cam software to feed data to my large format cnc router! With 3D design software I can put the pieces together before cutting them. I then discover that something was wrong and repair it - I thinks it's great. I have been trying for years to learn cadd, ny latest blow out was Alibre Standard which they now call personal. I just can't get my mind around it.

Moi3D has certainly put me on the right path. Consequently Moi3D has saved me some serious machine time and material costs.

Gary

Hi Gary, so I wouldn't worry too much about having the grid sections set to 800 - I think that you'd need to crank it up a fair amount higher than that before it would really start to have much impact.

If with your current settings you can easily pan and zoom in an empty scene then it's not consuming too many resources for particular machine and that should be fine.

If you crank it up to say upwards of 10,000 sections or something like that maybe it could start to be an issue.


> Then when you factor in the Z= values the figures become staggering in coordinate
> points supported. The Z values extend up or down by 100" in 1/8" increments.

The only thing that really consumes resources is just the visual display of the grid on the screen - the grid snap itself (which can be enabled even when the visual grid display is turned off) does not consume resources itself - the grid snap is based off of just an origin point, axis directions, and a snap size value and snapped locations can be calculated on demand as needed from that information, it's not like there is an actual cube of points created for the grid.

- Michael

Thanks Michael,

That's great!

Gary