Chapter 5
The View Menu.

1. Select "Animated Rotation" from the "View" menu.

2. Click one of the lines that make up the door. Both lines will turn gray.

3. Optionally, hold the shift key and click the word "door".

4. Click anywhere in the drawing board. You are going to override the mouse click for the center of rotation.

5. Enter 1 in the "Angle Step (Degrees)" box.

6. Press TAB and enter .1 in the "Time/Step (Seconds)" box.

7. I'm sure you have noticed that these values are already in these boxes. Values from the previous usage of this feature are remembered.

8. Check the box labeled "Override Center Point Mouse Click".

9. In the "Center Point (X,Y) box type "20.375,48.125".

10. Type "90" in the "Stop When Total Angle =" box.

11. Click the "Go!" button.

You probably have noticed that I forgot to tell you to click on the part of the hinge that is mortised into the door. Click on the restore button near the upper left corner of the drawing board. If you are so inclined, repeat the steps above but this time select the part of the hinge that is supposed to rotate with the door.

You should have also noticed that the door did not catch on the frame as it opened. If you didn't, run the simulation again. You may want to set the stop angle to something less than 90 degrees so the time to completion will be shorter.

Now type Control O and load the file "MaxCAD_Manual_5-02.dwg".

1. Select "Animated Rotation" from the "View" menu.

2. Click on the door and the outline of the box.

3. Optionally, click on the text.

4. Click anywhere in the drawing board.

5. The dialog will open and all values should be set from the previous run. They will be there even if you have turned off your computer since working with Figure 5.1.

6. I recommend, as a time saver, changing the stop angle to 30 degrees.

7. Click "GO!"

Lay a ruler on your computer screen and measure along the back line of the box. Decide how much needs to be cut off to clear the door jam. Draw in the new box before deleting the old one.

Start at the top right and draw to the top left, then down. Lay the ruler back on the screen and stop the vertical line short of the bottom line by the amount you measured above. Click and draw the line to the right until it hits the door. Make sure it is exactly horizontal and right click. Now delete the old box outline.

Now run the animation again and see if your adjustment gives the clearance you want. Remember this is wood work. Even if you measure 10 times the dimensions are never going to come out perfect. So leave a little extra clearance to allow for errors.

You could solve this problem with the original rotate function, infact I did before adding the code to make the animation happen. The problem is, to get the interfering objects exactly in the right place you have to fiddle the angle back and forth and by the time you get it there you don't know what the rotation angle is to get it back to the original position. Very little code was required to make this function. All I had to do was to call existing routines.

1. Press F5 or select "Grid Spacing" from the "View" menu.

2. You will be prompted "Grid Spacing" at the top left of the drawing board. The blue box will display 0.4 and the characters will be selected.

3. Type ".2" without the quotes then press the TAB key.

4. Experiment with several different values.

5.3 Grid On/Off.

5.2.1 Using the Function Key F6.

1. Press F6. Notice that the grid is no longer visible.

2. Press F6 again. Now the grid is back.

5.2.2 Selecting from the menu.

1. Open the "View" menu. Notice that there is a check mark next to the "Grid On/Off" entry.

2. Click on "Grid On/Off. The menu will close and the grid will disappear.

3. Open the "View" menu again. Notice that the "Grid On/Off is not checked.

4. Click on "Grid On/Off again.

5.4 Limits.

5.3.1 Manually setting limits.

1. Load the test drawing you used in Chapter 4.

2. Press F7 or select "Limits" from the "View" menu.

3. Type "-1,-1" without the quotes and press the TAB key.

4. Type "1,1" without the quotes and press the TAB key. The Zoom has been set to 100 % for these limit settings.

5. Press F3 6 times to zoom out until you can see the boarder. Notice that the grid only covers a small space around the origin.

6. Leave the screen in exactly this condition for the next section.

5.3.2 Automatic Limit Settings.

1. Press F7.

2. Type the letter A, lower or upper case, in the box.

3. Press the TAB key.

Now you can play with various limit settings both large and small to see how they work. After the limits have been set the screen is automatically zoomed to 100 percent for those limit settings.

5.3.3 One-to-one Scaling a Drawing to the Printer.

If the drawing is wider than it is high, do this.

1. Set the limits for a total width of 10 and a total height of 7.5.

2. Open the "Printer Setup" window and make sure the "Landscape Mode" box is checked.

3. The drawing will print 1 to 1.

1. Set the limits for a total width of 7.5 and a total height of 10.

2. Open the "Printer Setup" window and make sure the "Landscape Mode" box is not checked.

3. The drawing will print 1 to 1.

5.3.4 One-to-one Printing of larger drawings.

1. Open the "Printer Setup" window and make sure the "Landscape Mode" box is checked.

2. Set the limits to 7.5 inches high and 10 wide but make it the left most 10 inches of the drawing. The right most 5 inches will be outside the limits.

3. Print the drawing.

4. Change the limits to include the right most 10 inches of the drawing leaving the left 5 inches outside the limits.

5. Print the drawing.

6. Find the best place in the overlapping 5 inches to splice the pages together.

7. Cut one page along this line and tape it to the other, uncut, page. If the drawing is a panel label carefully cut both pages along the chosen line, trim the top and bottom, and glue it to the panel.

5.5 Pan.

In this program the pan command moves the drawing board. If you pan to the left the objects will move to the left.

1. Press F2 or select "Pan" from the "View" menu.

2. Left click near the origin.

3. Stretch out the rubber band and right click near one corner of the screen. The origin will be moved to the position of the right click.

4. Press F3 until you can see the whole drawing.

5. Leave the screen in this condition for the next section.

5.6 Reset Zoom and Pan.

Press F11 or select "Reset Zoom and Pan" from the "View" Menu.

That's all there is to it. It comes in handy if you have done a lot of zooming and panning. Try zooming in by pressing F4 until you can only see part of the drawing. Now experiment with panning around the screen. Then press F11 to quickly get back to 100 % zoom.

1. Type Control N.

2. Press F8 or select "Snap Width" from the "View" menu.

3. Type .4 into the box and press the TAB key.

As you move the mouse you will see that the cursor jumps 0.2 inches in the X direction but 0.4 inches in the Y direction. This comes in handy if you need to snap fractional inches in one axis and decimal values in the other. I have run into this situation when designing a bookcase.

If you type a single number without a comma the program will assume you meant to type the same number for both axes. When you press F8 again you will see that X snap and Y snap have been set equal.

There are 4 snap modes. They are;

1. Off,
2. X axis only,
3. Y axis only,
4. Both axes.

5.8.1 Changing Snap Mode Using the Menu.

1. Type Control N to obtain a blank screen.

2. Press F8 and type .4 in the box and press the TAB key.

3. Open the "View" menu.

4. You will see "Snap Mode (Both)"

5. Select this menu item. The words "Snap (Off)" will show in the upper right corner of the drawing board.

6. Move the mouse around. You will notice that the dotted cross follows the solid cross smoothly in both axes.

7. Once again open the "View" menu and select the item "Snap Mode (Off)"

8. The legend at the upper right will change to "Snap (X)".

9. Move the mouse and notice that the dotted cross follows the solid one smoothly in the Y direction but jumps, (snaps), in X.

10. Open the "View" menu and select the item "Snap Mode (X)".

11. The legend at the upper right will change to "Snap (Y)".

12. Move the mouse and notice that the dotted cross follows the solid one smoothly in the X direction but jumps, (snaps), in Y.

13. Open the "View" menu and select the item "Snap Mode (Y)".

14. The legend at the upper right will change to "Snap (Both)".

15. Move the mouse and notice that the dotted cross jumps, (snaps), in both X and Y.

16. Leave everything in this state for the following section.

5.8.2 Changing Snap Mode Using the Function Key F9.

1. Press the F9 key and note that the legend in the upper right of the drawing board changes to "Snap (Off)"

2. Move the mouse and note that the dotted cursor moves smoothly.

3. Press the F9 key and note that the legend in the upper right of the drawing board changes to "Snap (X)"

4. Move the mouse and note that the dotted cursor moves smoothly in Y but snaps in X.

5. Press the F9 key and note that the legend in the upper right of the drawing board changes to "Snap (Y)"

6. Move the mouse and note that the dotted cursor moves smoothly in X but snaps in Y.

7. Press the F9 key and note that the legend in the upper right of the drawing board changes to "Snap (Both)"

8. Move the mouse and note that the dotted cursor snaps in X and Y.

5.8.3 Changing Snap Mode on the Fly.

1. Press F8 and set the snap width to 0.2.

2. Type L and draw a line from the point 0,-0.2 to 1,-0.2.

3. Press the mouse wheel and draw another line from 0.8,0.8 to 1.6,1.2.

4. Type A1, the A first then the 1, and place the center point at 0,0.

5. Move the mouse to the point 1.4,0. A dotted circle will pass through the mouse cursor.

6. Left click and move the mouse up. You want to make the end of the arc hit the line that is at an angle. Even moving the mouse farther away from the center still won't allow you to make the rubber band cross the dotted circle on the diagonal line.

7. Press F9 once and note that "Snap (Both)" is now displayed at the top of the screen.

8. Move the mouse until the rubber band crosses the dotted circle exactly on the diagonal line. Moving the mouse far away from the center point (0,0) will make this easier. Remember, you don't have to be on the dotted circle when you click the third point.

9. When you are satisfied, right click and the arc will terminate exactly on the diagonal line.

10. Press F9 three times to bring the snap mode back to "Both".

11. Press F8 and set the snap width to 0.4.

12. Type L and start a line at 0,-1.2.

13. Now, you want to draw the line to the end of the horizontal line. But you can't get there from here. You don't want the line to stop short of the line or go past it.

14. Press F9 twice and "Snap (X)" should show at the top of the screen.

15. Now you note that you can move the cursor smoothly in Y but only in 0.4 inch steps in X.

16. Set the cursor on the end of the line. This is easy because it is obvious when the dots of the cursor are on the solid line. Right click.

1. Load your practice drawing if it is not presently loaded.

2. Type Control J or select "What is it" from the "View" menu.

3. Select one, and only one, object on the drawing board.

4. Press the TAB key to select the answer of Y for yes.

5. A blue screen will come up with the information about the object printed in it.

6. When you are finished studying the information click on the "Close" button at the top of the drawing board.

5.11 Zooming.

Selecting "Zoom Out" from the "View" menu or pressing F3 will zoom out from the drawing about 25 % each time the menu item is selected or the F3 key is pressed.

Zoom in is limited to 800 % and zoom out is limited to 0.01 %.

If you made your practice drawing exactly like mine there is a place where an arc goes past the angle a little so the line which was supposed to meet the end of the arc, hits it at a tangent. If you don't have such an item in your practice drawing, add one to it. Let's practice zooming and panning.

1. Press F2 and left click on the arc overlap described above.

2. Move the mouse to the origin, (0,0), and right click.

3. The arc overlap will move to this point.

4. Press F4 until the screen will no longer change. The zoom factor will be 800 %.