Drawing Controls provide the capability to constrain one of the axes when drawing or reshaping an object. For example, using a constraint, the user can quickly draw a frame object parallel to one of the global axes. The keyboard key/drawing controls and their associated actions include the following:
H - Locks the horizontal component of the next point to that of the previous one.
V - Locks the vertical component of the next point to that of the previous one.
A - Locks the parallel angle component of the next angle to that of the previous angle.
L - Locks the length component of the next segment to that of the previous segment.
S - Locks the length and angle components of the next point to that of the previous point.
D - Locks the change in the horizontal and vertical components of the next point to that of the previous one.
Press the space bar or select None from the Drawing Controls menu if you want to remove the drawing control option.
There are three steps to using the constraint tools:
Locate the first point.
Press one of the constraint keys or select an option in the Properties of Object form that appears following use of the Advanced > Draw > Set Reshape Element Mode command, the Advanced > Draw > Draw Frame/Cable/Tendon command, or the Advanced > Draw > Poly Area command.
Locate the next point. CSiBridge picks up only the unconstrained component of the selected point.
Note: Snaps can be used in conjunction with drawing controls, but are not required. Only the unconstrained component of the selected snap point is used when a control has been selected. Snap tools can also be used when reshaping an object.
See Also