Hi mbellon,
> Placing via the mouse is a pain, I just want to enter the numbers from the drawing. Can someone clearly explain to me how to do this?
There's a few different ways - see here for a similar recent question:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=6676.2
If you want to place the circle directly in the desired spot from the start, you can use numeric input when you're in the first step of the circle command where it's asking you to place the center point.
There are various ways to use numeric input:
http://moi3d.com/2.0/docs/moi_command_reference1.htm#__XYZ%20/%20Distance%20/%20Angle
The most basic way is if MoI is asking you for a point and you want to locate it at say x = 5 and y = 8, then you can type in 5,8 and push enter instead of using the mouse. Your point will then be placed at x = 5, y = 8, z = 0.
There's also "relative" point input, that's when you want to locate a point say 5,8 offset from some existing point, like if you want to put it inside a rectangle that does not have its corner at the origin. To do that type in an r character before your coordinates, so for example r5,8 and then push enter. Then snap on to the corner point with the mouse but your actual point taken will be offset from that.
You can also put in polar coordinates where you give it a distance and angle value instead.
If you want to relocate an already existing object to a specific place instead of drawing it the exact spot from the beginning, use the Transform > Move command for that. Snap the base point for the move onto the particular spot of interest on the object (like for a circle probably its center point or a quadrant point), then for the target point use numeric input.
> In other CAD packages there is an "object inspector" or some such that yields the exact
> information about the object. One can enter numeric data there to be very specific about
> the placement of the object.
The problem with this is that objects have numerous potential points of interest on them, and a UI like that tends to restrict you to some narrow set of choices. Like if you want to relocate an arc, it can be useful to relocate the arc by one of its end points or possibly its center point. The way the Transform > Move command works in MoI allows you to do those kinds of relocations by letting you specifically pick the base point to use rather than using only one fixed base point.
Also one other note:
> Easy enough, put a circle at the right place, move to the top surface of the plate,
> extrude into the plate and remove the material via a boolean.
If you're going to be cutting a hole all the way through you can actually skip the extrude step and just do the boolean using the circle as the cutting object. The booleans will automatically extrude 2D curves for you inside the command, that tends to save a step. You only need to extrude if you only want to cut some partial distance into the plate. And I want to extend the boolean auto extrude to have a "limit depth" option so it will cover that case as well but currently it does not have that part.
Hope this helps!
- Michael
