i was under the impression, the OP was looking for a way to place circles rather instant by using their center point.



and Move + Bounding box center does exactly that, instantly placing the center of the circle on the cursor...but you can't call this as a shortcut via script or macro, can you?

Hi Marco,

> i was under the impression, the OP was looking for a way to place circles
> rather instant by using their center point.

I interpreted it as more like "an easier process than drawing in an additional line to use for dragging"...


> and Move + Bounding box center does exactly that, instantly placing the center of the circle on the
> cursor...but you can't call this as a shortcut via script or macro, can you?

You can't call the move command itself with that specific option automatically triggered, but it would not be difficult to make a custom version of the Move command that just immediately used the bounding box center instead of asking for the base point at all... It's definitely possible to set up a script for that, let me know if you need to do this a large number of times and I will make that custom command for you.

But for more typical use just the regular Transform > Move command should get the job done a lot easier than their current process.

- Michael

Indeed Marco I was looking for an easy way to drag the center of the circle. While making technical drawings sometimes you need to place hundreds of circles and invoking a command each time is tedious. Since MOI3D snap system is excellent I was wondering there was an easier way to just drag the center of the circle to an intersection.

It is easy to do the other way around. But as Michael guessed. I'm drawing bisect lines so I can snap its center... It is a tedious extra step.

As suggested, I could draw a new circle from a center point... but then I would have to input the dimensions each time. That's also not easy as drag and drop... 50-100 circles to its correct location.

Here is a perfect example:

PLACING drill holes on a faceplate. You first draw the grid with the correct spacing. Then you have to place several circles from its center on the correct intersection. This is an extremely common task... and it would be so much easier if we could drag a circle from its center.

If your circles are all the same size, you can use the copy command, pick the center point, and then copy the circle as many times as you want without having to re-pick or re-enter anything. Just don't press ESC and you can keep selecting target points.

Hi hallsadvancedformula,

> PLACING drill holes on a faceplate. You first draw the grid with the correct spacing. Then
> you have to place several circles from its center on the correct intersection. This is an
> extremely common task... and it would be so much easier if we could drag a circle from its center.

Like Dan writes above, this is a job that the Transform > Copy command is well suited for. It's directly next to the Transform > Move command that should help you with your other circle relocation tasks as described above.

With the Transform > Copy command, you'll pick one base point at the center of the circle you want to duplicate, then you'll stay in the command and click as many target points as you want. Each target point you click will drop a circle into your desired location. It's actually faster than drag/drop would be for placing several objects because you don't have to keep going back to the base object for each copy, you only need to do one click at your target spot to drop a circle there.

It kind of sounds like you're not really taking any advantage of the additional transform tools under the Transform palette on the right-side side pane. Direct object dragging is good for many kinds of simple repositionings, but if you need something more flexible the additional Transform tools should help you a lot.

Transform > Move and Transform > Copy are the most essential ones out of those tools:



- Michael

Also there's an overview of the transform tools here:
http://moi3d.com/2.0/docs/moi_command_reference8.htm#Transform

- Michael

WOW! That works beautifully.

Thanks everyone!