Retaining focus and zoom while adjusting constraints

[MikeHenry]

I'm in the middle of fine tuning a moderately complex assembly and a couple of things are driving me nuts.

One is that once you click in the Design Explorer, focus shifts to that area so that when you move the mouse to the assembly window, scrolling to zoom the assembly just scrolls the Design Explorer up and down. Is there a way to set GMD so that it applies mouse clicks and scroll movements in the window in which the cursor is located?

Second is that I frequently want to edit a sketch which occupies a fairly small area of a part and an especially small area of the assembly. When I try to do an Edit Here and edit the small sketch, GMD zooms out to show the entire assembly so that it seems like I am constantly zooming in to see the sketch of interest in enough detail to be able to work with it. Is there a setting to tell GMD to zoom into the extents of the sketch that I want to edit?

Mike

 

[RCH_Projects]

On the first issue I can only recommend a "3Dconnexion" device (any excuse will do).

On the second - if you turn off "Snap to working Plane" - "Sketching" under System Options the object will not move at all.
While there review all your options / feature settings - I do.

In case you haven't noticed you do not "have" to select anything in the Design Explorer to edit the sketch (this may help with your first issue).
Double clicking directly on the feature (onscreen image) will put you straight into the sketch that creates it.

 

[RCH_Projects]

In sketch mode (or in any view mode):

If you use "Viewing and Analysis" - "Zoom to Window" (which should say "Zoom to selection" IMHO) will zoom into the selection rectangle you then drag on the sketch (or part or assembly if not editing).
Other features in "Viewing and Analysis" will allow you to orient to surface(face)/plane/sketch etc. without throwing you into a zoomed out view - check out your options there (esp. the icons on the far right).

I think that should cover most of your question / needs.





Oh - you can assign the "zoom" function to a keyboard shortcut (then a "3dconnexion" button).

 

[fabcadmz]

Second is that I frequently want to edit a sketch which occupies a fairly small area of a part and an especially small area of the assembly. When I try to do an Edit Here and edit the small sketch, GMD zooms out to show the entire assembly so that it seems like I am constantly zooming in to see the sketch of interest in enough detail to be able to work with it. Is there a setting to tell GMD to zoom into the extents of the sketch that I want to edit?

Mike

In situations like this just hit the "Home" key. This will zoom the sketch to fit the window.

 

[MikeHenry]

RCH - thanks for those suggestions. I do have a Space Navigator and Space Pilot Pro but am not yet comfortable with using either. I'll try to put more effort into that.

Turning off "Snap to Plane" is what I was looking for. Just tried that out and frustration level is already decreasing. "Oh Snap", indeed. I'll also check out those other options in Viewing and Analysis. One of my other frustrations is editing a part sketch in an assembly and finding out that I'm actually editing from the back of the part - I suspect "Orient to Surface" might help that.

Fab - I didn't know about the way Home works - very handy.

 

[Lew_Merrick]

Mike,

To amplify what Roger said, look at the "Hotkey" (Keyboard Shortcuts) assignments you can make under the System Options tab. I tend to not reply in these areas in that my "Hotkey" assignments are seriously non-standard. I use four different CAD systems and have (for the most part) made my "Hotkey" assignment the same across all the systems I use and no longer remember what is "default" for any of them. However, so long as you know that assignments you have made, there is not problem, right?

There are quite a few options available to you through the System Options-?Keyboard Shortcuts tab. It will take some (shall we say) iterative testing to figure out what combinations make sense for you, but the productivity gains are worth the pain...

 

[RCH_Projects]

...
Fab - I didn't know about the way Home works - very handy.

...
There are quite a few options available to you through the System Options-?Keyboard Shortcuts tab. It will take some (shall we say) iterative testing to figure out what combinations make sense for you, but the productivity gains are worth the pain...

Ditto! Ditto!

 

[MikeHenry]

Hi Lew,

I can see where the Hotkey/Keyboard Shortcuts could be quite useful, but there never seems to be time to actually sit down and work out a sequence that works for me. Then too, I use GMD on 2 or 3 computers so each of them should be set up the same way. Is there a file for the key assignments that can be shared between systems?

It would also be great if there was a way to painlessly duplicate the way the workspace layout and options between two systems - is there?

Mike

 

[Lew_Merrick]

Is there a file for the key assignments that can be shared between systems?

Hi Mike,

I am sure there is a file somewhere with that information, but I have yet to find it.

I have been agitating for complete user control of such things as hotkeys, color assignments (I am colorblind to red, which makes many personal color preferences "problematic" for me), units/dimension settings, and the like all along. In any given year, I do design/development work for 10-20 different companies. Each one has their own "preferences" and I find it stupid to have to sit down and make the appropriate changes each time my client changes! My argument is that, once such a change has been made, it should be simple & quick to save it for future reuse!

To be clear, this situation exists in most of the "solids" CAD systems today. It is seriously no better among Geomagic's competition..

 

[Ralf]

It would also be great if there was a way to painlessly duplicate the way the workspace layout and options between two systems - is there?

Hi Mike,

Yes, please take a look: User.NET.profile
You can copy this file from one computer to another computer:
C:\Users\your windows user name\AppData\Roaming\Alibre Design\your Alibre username

(...also the alibre_unicode.hps file...)

 

[Lew_Merrick]

Yes, please take a look: User.NET.profile

Is there a guide key to this information that you know of? Irrational minds want to know...

(...also the alibre_unicode.hps file...)

Yes! This is one of the most powerful (and generally unknown & undocumented) features of Alibre/Geomagic! I have (and have posted somewhere here in the forum) a LibreOffice Calc spreadsheet that helps walk one through extending the alibre_unicode.hps dataset without doing everything through the Hole Tool interface.

If only (A) this were better documented & publicized and (B) given a layer of "index-ability" (such has been done within the alibre_unicode_custom.mtl dataset), it would become a major selling point for Geomagic! The other "question" I have is, Does anybody recognize the font used in the Hole Tool to present this information? Neither the standard degree (°) nor diameter (ø) symbols "map" to the standard (<Alt>+0176 for ° or <Alt>+0248 for ø) positions.

 

[Ralf]

Is there a guide key to this information that you know of? Irrational minds want to know.......

Yes, please take a look:
.

 

[Ralf]

.... The other "question" I have is, Does anybody recognize the font used in the Hole Tool to present this information? Neither the standard degree (°) nor diameter (ø) symbols "map" to the standard (<Alt>+0176 for ° or <Alt>+0248 for ø) positions.

There is a "special" Font: Alibre Symbols
Please take a look:
.

 

[Lew_Merrick]

OK, so Diameter (ø) is Alt+0110 and Degree (°) is Alt+0186.

Thanks Ralf!

Actually, what I am looking for is the font used in the Hole Tool's "pull-down list."


This should read, "100° FHS .086 (#2) Dr & Csink."

 

[MikeHenry]

Yes, please take a look: User.NET.profile
You can copy this file from one computer to another computer:
C:\Users\your windows user name\AppData\Roaming\Alibre Design\your Alibre username

(...also the alibre_unicode.hps file...)

Thanks so much Ralf - this is great.

Mike

 

[MikeHenry]

Is there a guide key to this information that you know of? Irrational minds want to know.......

Yes, please take a look:
.

I'm totally surprised that this info was in the help file. In fact, the help file looks much more useful than it was in previous versions, or at least a lot prettier and easy to read. Ditto for the tutorials, which just help me work through some issues with configurations. I may actually start browsing through it.

It would be terrific if GM would figure out some way to format the entire help format so that it could be easily printed out as a manual. It is possible to print it out in 21 different sections now, but there's a bit of unnecessary material sprinkled throughout, mainly repeated links to social media, GMN Internet pages, and the hierarchy of where one is in the help system.

Mike

 

[Ralf]

Yes, please take a look: User.NET.profile
You can copy this file from one computer to another computer:
C:\Users\your windows user name\AppData\Roaming\Alibre Design\your Alibre username

(...also the alibre_unicode.hps file...)

Thanks so much Ralf - this is great.

Mike

I'm glad I was able to help.

 

[Ralf]

OK, so Diameter (ø) is Alt+0110 and Degree (°) is Alt+0186.

Thanks Ralf!
Actually, what I am looking for is the font used in the Hole Tool's "pull-down list."
...snip...
This should read, "100° FHS .086 (#2) Dr & Csink."

Lew,

My first idea was to say: You can use the ° (degree symbol) on your keyboard, but after some investigation...looks like you can use: Alt+248 (248 on your numpad)
Please take a look: Degree symbol

Some computer keyboard layouts, such as the QWERTZ layout as used in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and the AZERTY layout as used in France and Belgium, have the degree symbol available directly on a key. But the common keyboard layouts in English-speaking countries do not include the degree sign, which then has to be input some other way. The method of inputting depends on the operating system being used.

 

[Lew_Merrick]

Ralf,

The problem is that, since 1994 when ANSI & ISO abandoned their role as standard setters and allowed Microsoft & Adobe to fight it out amongst themselves, there is no actual mapping standard for characters outside of the ASCII (7-bit) coding range!

Back in the 1980's the proposed (but never adopted) ISO-820 specification placed the degree (°) symbol at position 248D (i.e. <Alt>+248 on your numeric keypad). The lower case phi (ø -- the diameter symbol) was placed at another position I no longer remember off the top of what's left of my mind. In most TrueType & Postscript fonts, the degree symbol was changed to position 0176D (<Alt>+0176 on your numeric keypad) and lower case phi was changed to position 0248D (<Alt>+0248 on your numeric keypad).

The problem is that this effort is not a standard, but merely a generally accepted practice. Not being an aficionado of fonts, I do not recognize nor have I been able to find the proper description of the font used in the Preset pull-down inside of the Hole Tool form. I have tried all the common variations I know to no avail.

To be clear, the attached PDF shows the current state of an effort I began in 1986 to incorporate design engineering symbology into a font. This exists as vector geometry I created for (originally) Generic CADD and then expanded for General CADD. I distributed geometry and position designations in the early-1990's and several system-specific fonts appeared for different CAD systems at that time. My effort was intended to start a conversation as to the symbology necessary for CAD fonts. I knew I had ignored language specific characters with this font, but was hoping to create a starting point for a discussion.

The fonts themselves are based on the single- & double-stroke character set used in French's Engineering Drawing (the standard drafting text in the U.S. from before WWII until the mid-1980's) as a starting point. I own this effort and have all the geometry (it can be easily converted into AutoCAD DWG or DXF format) but have never found the tools to convert them into a TrueType font. I would like a discussion/critique of my efforts such that they could be expanded to be more universal. I find that having to go to a separate font to get the symbology needed in proper engineering annotation is, shall we say, less than optimum.

 

[Ralf]

Lew,

Did you try: Alt+248 in the Hole Tool -> Preset ... ?
It works without problems with Win7 / Win 8.
.