At least one of my projects in TFP 15.1 is in a strange mode that I cannot seem to get out of. When I try to use the Linear Dimensions tool it makes the dimension relative to a point 100 ft or so off the drawing and shows the Commander in Polar mode. When I change the Commander to Cartesian mode the dimension tool disengages. I even tried removing TFP and reinstalling it, but I still see the problem. The best way I've found around it is to create a new project and redo the drawing. Does anyone know how I can get my project out of this mode?
Thanks.
You might try the auto repair file feature, Save this file and work on a copy of it in case more goes wrong
Perhaps you have a broken object, mismatched walls corner joins or an object placed far away from your house
Alternatively to starting over, do you have any progress saves so you can go back and lose only a small amount of lost time?
Thanks for the tip. Repair Project did not solve the problem. If I select Linear Dimension and click on the first point, a diagonal line off to the lower right appears and the cursor changes to a circle with an x inside. If I change to Cartesian coordinates, then a vertical line goes down and a horizontal line goes to the right, apparently to some reference point I know nothing about.
What happens if you simply ignore the Commander bar and simply click for the start point and end point of the dimension? Do you still get the same problem? (Personally I never use the Commander bar - easier to just click at each end of the line I want)
The other lines you are seeing going off in different directions, are probably the Snaptrack lines that simple look for other reference points that it thinks you may want to align to. You can ignore them if they are not useful, or turn Snaptrack off in the Status bar.
The Circle + X simply means that the point where you have the mouse is exactly on the wall (or whatever it is). If you click then and extend the line to another wall, move until you see the same Circle + X appear, then you know you are exactly on the next wall, so you can click then and know you have the exact distance between the two walls. (Using this you do not need to worry about the Commander Bar)
If there is a corruption in the model, (which it appears there is if you find the Linear Dimensions behaves normally on a new project), and Repair Project does not fix it, then you will have to search for it manually. As Doug said, the problem is most commonly a bad wall join. Zoom in really close to the wall joins, especially any you may have 'fiddled' with, select the walls involved and look for odd traingular shapes in the wall intersection. (see image) If you find these triangles, and expecially little points sticking out, you may need to redo the whole connection to clean it up. To do that, delete one or two of the walls and then extend other existing walls if possible to remake the join.
Welcome to the forum by the way!
Allan
Thanks for your input, Alan. I notice Snaptrack was enabled. When I disable it I still don't get the linear dimensions function to work. When I click on the linear dimensions tool in the toolbar, the cursor changes to a double-headed horizontal arrow with vertical dimension lines on either side. When I move the cursor off the menu bar it changes to a 4-headed arrow (up, down, left, right). When I click once on a line, nothing seems to happen. If I move the cursor to another point and click again, nothing happens and the cursor goes back to an arrow (default cursor). Any ideas?
Snaptrack would not have any effect on the actual working of the dimensioning tools - it simple gives the dotted lines to other reference points, so you know when you are in line with them.
The process of the Linear Dimension is simply three clicks. Once you select the tool you click on the first wall, click on the second one and then click at the point outside (or inside) the building where you want the dimension line to be. The Help/Tutor gives an example as you do it, if you turn that on.
The cursor should appear as the 'mini dimension line' you describe, change to a Circle+X when you are over the wall, change back to the 'mini dimension line' until you are over the next wall (a line will follow the cursor between both points), where it will change to the Circle+X again (when you click the actual dimension figue is added to the line). The cursor will then go back to the 'mini dimension line' until you click where you want the line to be placed. The dimension line will move with your cursor to that point and remain there after you click.
I presume you are doing this in Plan view?
Allan
Is the issue still present if you re-boot TFP? if so, after a PC re-boot?
I'm thinking you could be having either a temp or permanent video card issue.
Is this new or only in this file? Does a new file do same thing?
Have you tried "acceleration" (graphics) both on and off? does it make a difference in this behavior?
Thanks Alan and Doug for your input. The dimension tool acts like you describe it should on other projects, it just doesn't work on one particular project. I gather from your comments that there is no simple, obvious setting or mode I have invoked on this project, it just has become corrupted somehow and the normal repair process doesn't work. It is easy enough to redraw the project using TFP, so I'll just do that and hope it doesn't happen again on another project I have spent a lot of time on.
Thanks again for your help. It's probably just one of those strange, unexplainable things that sometimes happens in the computer world. I'll repost if it happens on another project.
Before you redo it just have a quick look for wall problems as discribed above. Look especially at any intersection where you may have had made several adjustments. Zoom in real close, select all the walls at the intersection (click and trag the mouse over them) and you will see all the lines that have been created. if there are several odd triangles then redo the join.
You may pick it up strainght away and save yourself a lot of time.
Allan
Also look for any strangely distant far flung objects...
in a 2D floorplan view, zoomed out to see all the terrain try:
- select all.....are there any objects outside the terrain?
- zoom to fit/extents.....does it zoom way out to see more than the house & terrain?
try scene with terrain hidden...then zoom to fit (extents) ......does zoom go well beyond the house?
Take a look at the list of all things in your scene....anything you did not expect to see? any duplicates/multiples not expected?
Or search any way you can.
Why? because you may have an object way off in space or a point/vertex of an object that went astray...can happen by accidental mouse click you did not know you did....and new tool wants to jump to that point.
Nothing yet has really solved the problem. I zoomed in to walls and don't see any strange zig-zag patterns. When I zoom to fit it does seem to pick up a point off to the lower right of the main drawing but there is nothing there. It seems to be some kind of reference point that I can't find any documentation on.
How far from the main plan is it?
Does it cause the plan to become really small on the screen?
Although you can't see it there is something there that shouldn't be, otherwise the Zoom to Extents would only show the Terrain area.
One other thing - have you added any new Locations besides Foundation, Ground Floor and Second Floor? If you have, in the Locations dialog for that new location click the Framing option and select some sort of framing or Default but do not leave it as None. This can cause theZoom to Extents problem too.
If that does not help then you could post the BLD file here, or email t to me (alches AT iinet.net.au) and I will try to find the issue for you.
Allan
Quote from: dougwin on February 08, 2012, 04:09:50 PM
When I zoom to fit it does seem to pick up a point off to the lower right of the main drawing but there is nothing there. It seems to be some kind of reference point that I can't find any documentation on.
Can you zoom in to that point and see it and show us a .jpg screen shot of it?
Can you simply delete that point; does that fix the problem or cause an object to change or disappear?
Is the point all alone or is it connected to anything else?