Mirror Toggling

[Eric M. Jones]

I have noticed that when I call up Mirror, it is set to the wrong X or Y axis 90% of the time. This is probably a result of my drawing style, but then again...Why should Mirror stay on the same axis. I would like a selection somewhere in option setup to allow the Mirror to toggle whenever it gets opened.
Any fans of this idea?

Eric

[Bob P]

You can bypass the xyz/line/axis dialog if you use the command line.

mir 0 > mirror on the x axis
mir 1 > mirror in the y axis
mir 2 > mirror in the z axis
mir 3 > custom axis
mir 4 > custom line/plane

[impulse]

If you ask me having it toggle would only serve to take it from being in the wrong mode 90% of the time to being in the right mode 10% of the time. 

I get frustrated with it too, but not so much that I haveever  bothered to set up hot keys linked to macros that specifically issue a "Mirror Horizontal" or "Mirror Vertical" command.
That's probably what you should do, IMHO.

impulse 

[Dempsey]

Eric,

When you activate the mirror command (via the menus or keyboard key /) the command menu pops up. There you can choose along which axis you want to do the mirroring. As long as you haven't clicked for the position you can change (toggle) the axis. The chosen axis is remembered for the next time you do the mirror command.

[Dr PR]

How about this?

When you open the Mirror dialog, let the "Tab" key cycle through the five mirror options. This would be faster than having to drag the cursor to the dialog box and click on the desired option. Also, this would not require moving the cursor (dragging the selected object) from it's original position.

In any case the dialog will almost always open to the wrong selection (Murphy's Law). However, it does remember the last selection used until the program is shut down.

[Dempsey]

Tab does not work because it is a single field with radio buttons.

[Dr PR]

Dempsey,

True, but it doesn't have to be radio buttons. Any programmer worth his salt could implement a tab selection control.

For example, open the Options/Options/General dialog and press the TAB key. Notice how the cursor moves through the list? You do have to click the selection or press the Spacebar to enable the selection.

It would be better if just moving to the option selected it automatically. I will try to find and existing example.

[Dempsey]

The items under Options/Options/General are all individual check flags; all can be OFF, all can be ON, or any combination thereof; none are dependent on the value of another.

For the five mirror choices only one choice can (and must) be ON. The Microsoft interface routines control that, not the DesignCAD programmer. For the programmer it looks like one field that returns a value between 1 and 5.

[Dr PR]

Dempsey,

I know how existing radio button and check box code works. I am asking for something different. That means the programmers must create new code. That is what programmers are for.

[Dempsey]

Dr PR,

I will add it to the Feature Request List and pray that we can still mirror in the next version.

I was just thinking about the ergonomic aspect of this.

You would select the mirror axis with 0 to 5 tabs ("Make a Copy" is part of the tab sequence!), but on average 2 to 3 tabs, and if you accidentally hit the tab key one time too many it is another 5 tabs! Okay, you can do SHFT-Tab to go backwards, but double (or triple) key operations has a very high rate of operator failure.

I can select the mirror axis with 0 to 1 mouse click, and if I miss then I need only 1 click to correct.

[Rob S]

 If they implement this, I sure hope its optional.

Given that we have the keyboard command line method for direct access, and the mouse method we're used to, I'm don't think we need this.

[Dr PR]

Dempsey has a good point. Perhaps some other key should be used to cycle through and select/deselect the options.

Rob, you are sounding shell-shocked from all the V18, V19 and V20 bug stomping! I do not think we should stop trying to improve the program because of the possibility that something will be broken. If we have that low confidence in the programmers maybe the Feature Request part of the forum should be eliminated.

[Rob S]

I just didn't think it was a sufficient improvement to warrant great effort, against some of the other things we need more.

In fact, I think our programmers have gotten quite a good handle on the quirks of the program now, and if IMSI is willing to invest just a bit more, it really has major potential.

I just finished importing an architects drawing from dwg format, everything came in precisely as expected, and I'm working away on some stair details.

[Dr PR]

I do agree that this isn't near the top of the list.

One thing about listing all the little bugs is that they may actually provide clues about the bigger bugs that are really annoying. Likewise, a lot of little feature requests might be included at the time the code is being massaged to get rid of the bugs in that part of the code.

[bdeck]

Hi all,

BobP's method seems to me the best so far, but all methods suggested here have the disadvantage of requiring the user to think.

Breaking the mirror command into  individual mneumonic macros (ie: mx,my,mz,ma,mc) might be better, but would still require thinking.

Here's a macro that probably still needs work, but it doesn't require any thinking, and it's faster than the alternatives for x, y z and custom mirrors. (I dont have a clue what "custom axis" is used for, so it's not part of the macro.)  You never have to think "x, y, or z" you just set 2 points, holding the shift key for the second point. (not possible in the DC mirror command)

http://forum.designcadcommunity.com/index.php?topic=1459.0

Any improvements are welcome. It works fine for me in 2D, cause I do all my work in 2D. I have't used it enough in 3D to know where the 3d problems are. If you like using handles then maybe this isn't the macro for you.

bd