15 replies to this topic

[Kris Marteinsson]

I've imported a pdf floor plan for reference. I've put it on it's own layer. I'm tying to use the distance command to measure various lengths. I've turned off cursor lock. When I click to set the first point, the cursor snaps to the edge of the pdf, not the point I want. Tried locking the layer the pdf is on but this doesn't work. Don't know why this snapping behaviour is happening. I want to turn off any snapping to the pdf. Possible? Any clues out there? Funny thing is that the distance command worked as I wanted it to a few times but then reverts to snapping to the pdf edge. Haven't been able to replicate the behaviour.

[David Zawadzki]

Did you try turning snap off?

[Jeremy Plum]

F11 - turns snap on/off

[Kris Marteinsson]

Yes, as I said, I turned snap off.

[Kris Marteinsson]

This seems to be something specific to the distance command. If I draw a line or a wall for example, the snapping works correctly.

[David Zawadzki]

F11 - turns snap on/off

Kris, Where did you say you turned off the snap?  I only read the cursor lock was off.  Two different animals…

[John Jones]

It sounds like the PDF was imported as an image rather than a vector - images don't contain lines, so there is nothing to snap to.  

[Kris Marteinsson]

Sorry, have my terminology wrong. Snap is F11. Correct? That is what I used. I can see the cursor snap turn off and on in the toolbar.

[Kris Marteinsson]

John, I don't want to snap to the pdf (which Softplan has imported as a Metafile image). The distance command is snapping to the edge of the image regardless of whether I have snapping turned off or on. I want the distance command to start from my cursor location.

Actually, on further trial and error, the cursor snaps to the workspace limit, not the pdf. Still an unusable action.

[Jim Johnson]

What are you measuring to?  You can't measure to your cursor location.  You have to have something to measure to.  Put a temporary line or construction point and measure to that.

[Kris Marteinsson]

Just did some more testing. The cursor is indeed snapping to the edge of the pdf (image). If I turn that layer off, the snapping works correctly. This is not helpful as I want to measure a distance from the pdf.

[Kris Marteinsson]

John, that was indeed my work around. Draw a shape and measure that. That works fine but an easier method would be good. The distance command will let you place the first point in empty space but won't let you set the second point. In the case of having the image visible, if you are anywhere near the image, the cursor will snap to the image edge even if snapping is turned off. This does not happen with other objects, just the image. I'm just looking for some logic for this behaviour.

[Bill Wimberley]

You could just draw lines and watch the distance up at the top as you move your mouse.

[Kris Marteinsson]

Yes, that's an easy solution. Like that.

[Keith Almond]

Alternately, CTRL-Home resets the ruler on the toolbar any movement of the mouse then showns how far it is from the reset point, you can then use CTRL-Home to measure from any point to any point.

[Kris Marteinsson]

Keith,

Yes, this definitely works. What is curious is that after pressing CTRL-Home, the errant snapping to the edge of the pdf is gone. Good to know.

A comment on a partially related item - I really dislike shortcuts which make me take my right hand off the mouse.