99 PDT Design Document.

Precision Drawing Tools (PDT) Design Document.

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PDT - Operations & Placements.

This section will list the PDT Design Operations and available Placements along with the appropriate Inputs.

Move Cursor.

Valid Placements: Absolute, Delta, Direction, Percent, Normal, Intersect, Arc Centre.

Inputs:

• Absolute: Cartesian X Y Z.
• Delta: Cartesian X Y Z.
• Direction: Distance, Angle, Flip Angle.
• Percent: Percent (%), Flip Percent.
• Normal: None.
• Intersect: Order (Object Mode Only).
• Arc Centre: None.

Selected/Current Mode is taken into account for Delta & Direction Placements. Working Plane is used for Direction Placements. Flip Angle causes the angle to be flipped 180 degrees, so 45 becomes -135. Flip Percent causes the percentage to be calculated from the opposite end, so 25 could be seen as 75 from the original end point.

Move Pivot Point.

Valid Placements: Absolute, Delta, Direction, Percent, Normal, Intersect, Arc Centre.

Inputs:

• Absolute: Cartesian X Y Z.
• Delta: Cartesian X Y Z.
• Direction: Distance, Angle, Flip Angle.
• Percent: Percent (%), Flip Percent.
• Normal: None.
• Intersect: Order (Object Mode Only).
• Arc Centre: None.

Selected/Current Mode is taken into account for Delta & Direction Placements. Working Plane is used for Direction Placements. Flip Angle causes the angle to be flipped 180 degrees, so 45 becomes -135. Flip Percent causes the percentage to be calculated from the opposite end, so 25 could be seen as 75 from the original end point.

Move.

Valid Placements: Absolute, Delta, Direction, Percent, Normal, Intersect, Arc Centre.

Inputs:

• Absolute: Cartesian X Y Z.
• Delta: Cartesian X Y Z.
• Direction: Distance, Angle, Flip Angle.
• Percent: Percent (%), Flip Percent.
• Normal: None.
• Intersect: Order (Object Mode Only).
• Arc Centre: None.

Selected/Current Mode is NOT taken into account for Delta & Direction Placements. Working Plane is used for Direction Placements. Flip Angle causes the angle to be flipped 180 degrees, so 45 becomes -135. Flip Percent causes the percentage to be calculated from the opposite end, so 25 could be seen as 75 from the original end point.

Add New Vertex.

Valid Placements: Absolute, Delta, Direction, Percent, Normal, Intersect, Arc Centre.

Inputs:

• Absolute: Cartesian X Y Z.
• Delta: Cartesian X Y Z.
• Direction: Distance, Angle, Flip Angle.
• Percent: Percent (%), Flip Percent.
• Normal: None.
• Intersect: Order (Object Mode Only).
• Arc Centre: None.

Selected/Current Mode is NOT taken into account for Delta & Direction Placements. Working Plane is used for Direction Placements. Flip Angle causes the angle to be flipped 180 degrees, so 45 becomes -135. Flip Percent causes the percentage to be calculated from the opposite end, so 25 could be seen as 75 from the original end point.

Extrude Vertices.

Valid Placements: Absolute, Delta, Direction, Percent, Normal, Intersect, Arc Centre.

Inputs:

• Absolute: Cartesian X Y Z.
• Delta: Cartesian X Y Z.
• Direction: Distance, Angle, Flip Angle.
• Percent: Percent (%), Flip Percent.
• Normal: None.
• Intersect: None.
• Arc Centre: None.

Selected/Current Mode is NOT taken into account for Delta & Direction Placements. Working Plane is used for Direction Placements. Flip Angle causes the angle to be flipped 180 degrees, so 45 becomes -135. Flip Percent causes the percentage to be calculated from the opposite end, so 25 could be seen as 75 from the original end point. All Selected Entities is used for this operation, if not checked, only the selected vertex is extruded.

Split Edges.

Valid Placements: Absolute, Delta, Direction, Percent.

Inputs:

• Absolute: Cartesian X Y Z.
• Delta: Cartesian X Y Z.
• Direction: Distance, Angle, Flip Angle.
• Percent: Percent (%), Flip Percent.

Selected/Current Mode is NOT taken into account for Delta & Direction Placements. Working Plane is used for Direction Placements. Flip Angle causes the angle to be flipped 180 degrees, so 45 becomes -135. Flip Percent causes the percentage to be calculated from the opposite end, so 25 could be seen as 75 from the original end point. Absolute & Percent input only allows for one edge to be split at a time, not a multiple of edges making a face, for example. If the split would ruin the topology of a face, an error message is given and the operation aborted.

Duplicate Geometry.

Valid Placements: Delta, Direction.

Inputs:

• Delta: Cartesian X Y Z.
• Direction: Distance, Angle, Flip Angle.

Selected/Current Mode is NOT taken into account for Delta & Direction Placements. Working Plane is used for Direction Placements. Flip Angle causes the angle to be flipped 180 degrees, so 45 becomes -135.

Extrude Geometry.

Valid Placements: Delta, Direction.

Inputs:

• Delta: Cartesian X Y Z.
• Direction: Distance, Angle, Flip Angle.

Selected/Current Mode is NOT taken into account for Delta & Direction Placements. Working Plane is used for Direction Placements. Flip Angle causes the angle to be flipped 180 degrees, so 45 becomes -135.

PDT - Design Tools.

This section will list the PDT Design Tools, their modes of operation and their required selections and inputs.

Origin To Cursor.

• Modes of Operation: Object & Edit.
• Selections: One object in either mode.
• Inputs: Working Plane.
• Function: Sets the active object's origin to the cursor current location.

Set A/D 2D

• Modes of Operation: Object & Edit.
• Selections: Two vertices selected with the cursor, last one selected is considered the centre. Or two objects, active is considered to be the centre.
• Inputs: Working Plane.
• Function: Sets the Angle & Distance inputs based upon the relationship of the two selected vertices/objects. Also sets the X Y Z cartesian inputs to the cartesian offset between the two selected vertices/objects.

Set A/D 3D

• Modes of Operation: Object & Edit.
• Selections: Three vertices selected with the cursor, last one selected is considered the centre. Or three objects, active is considered to be the centre.
• Inputs: None.
• Function: Sets the Angle input based upon the relationship of the three selected vertices/objects in world space. Also sets the Distance & X Y Z cartesian inputs to the cartesian offset between the last two selected vertices/objects.

Join 2 Verts.

• Modes Of Operation: Edit.
• Selections: Two vertices.
• Inputs: None.
• Function: Joins the two selected vertices into an edge.

Bisect.

• Modes of Operation: Edit.
• Selections: Two edges, or four vertices.
• Inputs: None.
• Function: Creates a bisector of the angle subtended by the two edges, or imaginary lines between the four vertices. This bisector is split at the intersection.

Edge To Face.

• Modes of Operation: Edit.
• Selections: One edge and one face.
• Inputs: None.
• Function: Extrudes an edge to the point of its intersection with a face, whether within the face, or not.

Intersect All.

• Modes of Operation: Edit.
• Selections: Many overlapping edges, optionally formed of faces.
• Inputs: None.
• Function: Cuts all overlapping edges at their mutual intersections resulting in new edges, but no faces.

Taper.

• Modes of Operation: Edit.
• Selections: Many vertices, active vertex i considered to be the centre of rotation.
• Inputs: Angle & Rot Axis/Mov Axis.
• Function: To "shear" geometry by angle rather than by offset. Selected Axis mode determines the rotational axis and the movement axis.

Fillet.

• Modes of Operation: Edit.
• Selections: One or many vertices, or edges.
• Inputs: Radius, Segments, Profile, Use Verts.
• Function: To fillet either single vertices, groups of vertices, or edges using parameters are described above in the inputs section. With Use Verts selected, only the vertices are filleted rather than the edges they might make up.
• Note: For Version 1.1.8 and beyond, Fillet also works with Fillet Intersect Checkbox.
  • Modes of Operation: Edit.
  • Selection: Two non-connected Edges, or four vertices representing 2 non-connected Edges.
  • Inputs: Radius, Segments, Profile.
  • Function: To Intersect then fillet two non connected edges using parameters are described above in the inputs section. With Use Verts selected, only the intersection vertex is filleted.

Modules.

PDT - Command Line.

The purpose of this module is to be able to run Operations and Tools by simply typing in various commands. These commands consist of a Primary Letter, denoting the Operation and a secondary letter denoting the Mode. This menu is aimed primarily at the experienced user who wants a faster mode of working.

Modes of Operation, in terms of Edit, or Object modes for example still apply as they would if the buttons in PDT Design, et al where used. Working Plane and Selection Type also still apply and have been duplicated in this menu.

What follows the two input letters depends on the command, for example a Delta command would require three cartesian values separated by commas. Whereas a Directional command would require two values of length and angle, again separated by commas. Blank values are interpreted as 0.

The Maths functions can be used to compute a value and send it to various Input fields, like Cartesian X for example. Output can also be sent to the Maths Output field, where it can be copied and pasted elsewhere.

There is a Re-Run icon the the right of the command line field, which will re-submit the command currently typed in.

Command Line Functions.

1) Maths Function.

This function is triggered by the command line input starting with "m". Second letter can be:

• x, y, z, a, d, p, o - these will send the output from the calculation to the appropriate Input field on the menu, with the letter being the first letter of the output field.

Function Name: command_maths

Function Location: pdt_com_functions.py

Function Variables: Self, Context, PG (PDT Parameter Group), Expression and Output Field. Output Field is sent as "mode" and worked in the function as "output_target". The results of the calculation are calculated into the field as "maths_result". Maths expressions are interpreted only against the calls in the Python Maths library, thus preventing any adverse results by interpreting any other library, or OS call.

This function is not used in any other part of PDT.

This Document is still under construction.