Topic Title

Is it possible to add custom angles to Orthomode? say... 30 and 60 in addition to the standard 45?

Thanks!

There are 2 areas that effect angles.
1) Snap Grid, so go the the Grid Menu, and set Snap Angle to how many settings you want, 8 gives you 45 and 90's. 12 will give the 30,60,90, but no 45. etc.
2) Settings/Edit Def/Scales is where you can define the Scales that show up in the menu for rotate, etc.

So, what I'm hearing is: No. I cant have 30, 45, 60, 90 and/or custom defined angles all at the same time. (I can if i use 24... but this adds 15 and 75 also which I dont need.) Most other programs have allowed me to use custom angles that are not even divisions of 360 as i draw. For example...

26.565, 63.435, 116.565, 153.435, 206.565, 243.435, 296.565, and 333.435
These draw a 1:2 relationship between objects. I use this ALOT when drawing roof slopes and tapers.

Defining Snap angles by number of divisions is nice, but having to draw these items and then rotate them to the required degree adds additional steps when what I want is to reduce steps.

I guess I'll have to use the 24 even divisions and draw each individual leg of the triangle and then delete them to get my 25.565... Just thought I'd ask if there was a better way in DC.

Thanks anyways.

This is a good idea. Maybe add a Include button added to the Snap Angle menu that would allow you to select Angles that are listed in the Angle List from the loaded ANG file in addition to the Snap Angle factor.

[Mark F. Madura]

"I use this A LOT when drawing roof slopes and tapers."

You can use Tangents for this. Press [b] to go to the Tangents menu. Select the line you want to draw tangent to (like the rake line in an elevation), or select [F4] 2 Points to define the angle by entering two points. If you choose 2 Points, you can then click any point on the screen, press the [Spacebar], then enter 12 for x and 7 for y which will give you the angle for a 7:12 pitch.

Note: When you Identify a line, DataCAD displays its Length, Angle, Pitch, Slope, and Grade on the Coordinates/Hints toolbar.

I think that you can do exactly what you want to do by going to Grids, then F0 Snap Angle.
Change the number to what you want to be able to access. The standard for 45 degrees is eight. If you want 30 degree increments, set it to twelve.
Unfortunately, if you want 45s and 30s, you also have to accept 15s because there is no "filter". For 45s and 30s, the setting is twenty four.

Good luck,
Woody

I'm sorry Mark, but I cant get the Tangent command to do anything at all. It rotates my cursor and highlights some lines/arcs but it doesnt produce an output for me. I dont understand what its asking me for nor do the prompts make sense to me. Isnt "Tangent" normally reserved for a line intersecting a circle or arc at a specific point?

Thanks though.

[Mark F. Madura]

At the end of Chapter 11 in the Reference Manual you'll find an explanation of the Tangents command. Its purpose is to allow you to temporarily rotate the snap grid and cursor to an odd angle. The angle can be determined by either picking a line or by clicking two points. You can also use the bisected angle between two lines by picking Bisect. Tangent Divisions (Tan. Div.) allows you to set a unique number of Snap Angle divisions while you're in tangents mode.

ok. I suppose that may have its uses.

Is there a reason why my Ortho angle snap would not accept a larger number of even divisions than 4? If I input 24 and hit enter... I'm still set to only 4 divisions when I try to draw. Going back into Snap Angle under Grids, it looks like 24 was accepted by DC, but its not allowing it for some reason. Any ideas what could be wrong?

Thanks!

The Ortho and Tangent settings are independent.
When you activate tangent, the default setting is 4. The reason that you are seeing only four angles tells you that you still have tangent active. Go back to tangents (by pressing "B") and deactivate it at F3. That will take you back to Ortho and you should have the 24 angles enabled.
24 angles is a little bit difficult to control when making short lines so be sure to window (zoom) in tightly for them. A tiny bit of movement will pop your angle to one that you don't want. Longer lines are not any problem.
Good luck,
Woody

ok. I suppose that may have its uses.

Is there a reason why my Ortho angle snap would not accept a larger number of even divisions than 4? If I input 24 and hit enter... I'm still set to only 4 divisions when I try to draw. Going back into Snap Angle under Grids, it looks like 24 was accepted by DC, but its not allowing it for some reason. Any ideas what could be wrong?

Thanks!

You probably still have Tangent mode turned on. Tangent mode has it's own settings for it's snap angles. Hit B to go to the Tangents menu, then check what F2 Tan Divs is set to. You can set it to 24 as well. Once you are done working in Tangent mode, you should click the F3 Cancel button in the Tangent's mode to go back to normal mode to avoid confusion. If you were to instead hit B and clicking something else trying to go back to a "normal" alignment, depending on how the object was created, it could set your X/Y axis or angles off by 90° or 180°.

Having the second set of Snap angles for Tangent mode lets you work along two different primary alignments in your drawing for things like iso drawings or drawings where your design may have two or more parallel or semi-parallel working grids or axes but maybe the different axes have different radial aspects where you need one set of snap angles for one but then another set of snap angles for another. This allows you to jump between the designs sections without having to reset the snap angles each time. You can just hit B for tangent and then pick an entity to adjust your cursor and snap angles for working in that axis.

That was exactly the issue I was having. My Tangent was set to 0 degrees and left on. I didnt realize that there was a separate number for tangent divisions.

Thanks!

Hi Lars,

We've all done that - if you hit the B key and you see F3 Cancel on the menu - then you need to click it to cancel any rotation, even if it is rotated 0 degrees.