Hi, I’m new to wig and just finding my feet. I am having problems with getting the objects in my drawings aligned nicely. Let’s use a standard rock & roll festival stage as an example. So the dimensions I know about are the size and height of the stage deck and the dimensions of the stage roof/structure. I start by adding the stage using the riser tool and add it at coordinates 0,0,0 I’m unsure about drawing the structure itself as I only have a PDF with the dimensions. The structure is made from truss but I don’t know what type. Once the stage is drawn I just want to align everything else with its centre, ie a few trusses, a projection screen etc. Is there a way of aligning objects with some kind of centre point, or the centre of the stage? Should I be using 0,0,0 as the centre of the drawing not the bottom left? Any pointers? Thanks
yeh, sometimes i'll have my stage "straddle" the 0,0,0 so that centre stage is at the zero, and all the way downstage, or something. it kinda depends on the venue/space that i'm working in. have you considered moving your rulers? click the icon on the top left of your CAD window (where the 2 rulers meet) or right-click on the ruler, and choose Move Ruler (set viiew origin), then click where you want to set your zero point of origin. you can also select a few other options, like Display Ruler at Document Origin (which realigns it with the original point of origin), or Display Ruler at Current View.
Thanks I'll give moving the rulers a go, Because the stage I'm drawing right now is symmetrical I think it would be good to use 0,0,0 as the centre of the drawing How do I pick up and place objects from their centre? Or to put it another way how would I move a truss so that the trusses centre was at the 0,0,0 point?
Ok, I’m still don’t feel I know the answer to my question. Just to be clear I understand how to select and move objects manually or by setting the insertion point to a coordinate. To give an example, Lets say you have a room that is 47m x 52.4m, 10m high. You draw a box and maybe extrude to the height to represent the room in your drawing and insert it at 0,0,0 You want to add a stage, a few trusses and a projection screen. Here in the UK we have a weird situation where by a lot of set and stage is imperial and everything else is metric The stage is 48’ x 16’ 2x trusses are 18m, one is to be flown at the back of the stage the other 5m in front The screen is 16’x9’ You want to add all these items so they are centred with the short wall of the room (47m). Is the only way of doing this by getting the calculator out and working out the insertion point coordinate that will place the object central to the room? Is there a way for the object to snap central with another? I noticed there is a centre line option when drawing a line, can this be used to reference a central point to snap to? I suppose all this could be solved if I could pick up an item from its centre not the insertion point. Is there a way of doing this accurately? Thanks!
I would draw a few auxilary lines and use snap to snap to those lines (or to the centre of those lines)
Are you aware of the snap possibilities? They are essential tools to "catch" your line/riser/.../... and place it on the centerpoint/endpoint of other elements I'd look it up in the reference manual - look in the members area Another tool is to use the command CTRL + M to move your object then write @0,5.3,0 to move your object exactly 5.3m up the y-axis. But as Floriaan said - make a layer with "help" lines - I do that all the time! Let me know if I misunderstood
