Desigh Edge offset and snap example

[adbuch]

A fellow member recently asked me the following question. He is just starting out using Design Edge this past week.

"I’m also trying to place a rectangle cut out in a panel that’s offset a specific distance and I’m not sure how to do that . And I want to merge it so the rectangle is cut out."

Here was my response. I'm sure there are other methods to accomplish the same thing, these were just a few that came to mind that I shared with him.

David

[Joe Jones]

[adbuch]

AJ - Here is yet another way to do it.

David

[Joe Jones]

That is another way.

Joe

[Fastyankee]

Awesome thank you !

[Joe Jones]

[w](click anywhere) @20,10 [ENTER]

[y] [6] [ENTER] [2] [ENTER] (click to place hexagon anywhere on work area)

[m] [c] (click on hexagon) [n] (click on top left corner of rectangle)

[m] (click ANYWHERE) [@ 8.5,-4.2] [ENTER]

[adbuch]

Awesome thank you !

Andrew - you are quite welcome!
Happy to help as always! Let us know how your are making out with your new program.

David

[Fastyankee]

Not sure what I’m doing wrong but I can’t seem to get the snap tool to work correctly. No matter what I tried I could not get the Hexagon in the center of the point .I also noticed the two options at the bottom at least one has to be checked. The snap tool definitely works differently than other snap tools I have used.

[adbuch]

[Fastyankee]

Dave I did figure out that I needed to uncheck them under settings and I still have no luck with center snap.
See picture . This is no way accurate enough for me.the center is off by about .900.

[Joe Jones]

Tell me what you want to draw, with dimensions, etc. I will make a video for you.

Joe

[adbuch]

Dave I did figure out that I needed to uncheck them under settings and I still have no luck with center snap.
See picture . This is no way accurate enough for me.the center is off by about .900.

nodepoint snap.jpg (63.9 KiB) Viewed 695 times

nodepoint snap.jpg (63.9 KiB) Viewed 695 times

[adbuch]

Andrew - the hardest snap to use is the nodepoint snap. You need to zoom in real close and position your crosshairs directly over the intersection before clicking your mouse. If you explode your rectangle first, then you can use the endpoint snaps to copy/paste the hexagon to the corners of the rectangle. This will go much quicker and accurate every time. Then select all and "J" to link/join when finished.

David

[adbuch]

Andrew - Robert does a great job of walking you thru all of the Design Edge snaps and demonstrating how to use them - starting at about 16 minutes into the video.

David

[Fastyankee]

[w](click anywhere) @20,10 [ENTER]

[y] [6] [ENTER] [2] [ENTER] (click to place hexagon anywhere on work area)

[m] [c] (click on hexagon) [n] (click on top left corner of rectangle)

[m] (click ANYWHERE) [@ 8.5,-4.2] [ENTER]

I’m trying to decipher this.

[Fastyankee]

Andrew - Robert does a great job of walking you thru all of the Design Edge snaps and demonstrating how to use them - starting at about 16 minutes into the video.

David

Thanks I will give it a watch. The video manual doesn’t really go into it much.

[adbuch]

[w](click anywhere) @20,10 [ENTER]

[y] [6] [ENTER] [2] [ENTER] (click to place hexagon anywhere on work area)

[m] [c] (click on hexagon) [n] (click on top left corner of rectangle)

[m] (click ANYWHERE) [@ 8.5,-4.2] [ENTER]

I’m trying to decipher this.

[adbuch]

[Fastyankee]

After watching the video I had a huge revelation. The old saying a picture is worth a thousand words lol. I wasn't clicking on the edge of the design I wanted to center. I was clinking in the center of the design which was the main cause of my issue. I also found the snap tool is useful and can be used in conjunction with the measuring tool as well.
Design edge is definitely a power cad software just a bit of a learning curve with hot keys and how it functions and frustration with learning a new cad software the third software this year for me.
My only complaint is I wish it opened SVG and EPS files but that's not the end of the world. I was very impressed it will open cut files though. I converted a SVG file to DFX in Inkscape and than imported it in to Design edge and it came in not to scale. I'm sure that is just an issue with the settings I had selected. But that's for another post.

[Fastyankee]

[w](click anywhere) @20,10 [ENTER]

[y] [6] [ENTER] [2] [ENTER] (click to place hexagon anywhere on work area)

[m] [c] (click on hexagon) [n] (click on top left corner of rectangle)

[m] (click ANYWHERE) [@ 8.5,-4.2] [ENTER]

I’m trying to decipher this.

design edge keyboard shortcuts 1.jpg
design edge keyboard shortcuts 2.jpg
design edge keyboard shortcuts 3.jpg
design edge keyboard shortcuts 4.jpg
design edge keyboard shortcuts 5.jpg

Wow super cool once I get use to doing these steps its going to be a huge game changer for me.

[adbuch]

[adbuch]

After watching the video I had a huge revelation. The old saying a picture is worth a thousand words lol. I wasn't clicking on the edge of the design I wanted to center. I was clinking in the center of the design which was the main cause of my issue. I also found the snap tool is useful and can be used in conjunction with the measuring tool as well.
Design edge is definitely a power cad software just a bit of a learning curve with hot keys and how it functions and frustration with learning a new cad software the third software this year for me.
My only complaint is I wish it opened SVG and EPS files but that's not the end of the world. I was very impressed it will open cut files though. I converted a SVG file to DFX in Inkscape and than imported it in to Design edge and it came in not to scale. I'm sure that is just an issue with the settings I had selected. But that's for another post.

Right - I mentioned that several times in my screen shots that you needed to click just inside the outer perimeter of the circle, rectangle, polygon, or whatever object you are moving or copying when using the Center snap. I have never watched Robert's video, but I fast forwarded enough to see that he was discussing snaps and how to use them so I could recommend it to you. Happy to hear it helped.

David

[adbuch]

The file you converted from svg to dxf was probably in metric units. You could check the dimension/scale in Inkscape before you save it as dxf. It it is the correct dimension in Inkscape in inch units, then when you import the dxf to Design Edge it should be the correct size in inches. If it comes in way to big, just scale it by a factor or 1/25.4. You can type 1/25.4 right into the line where it asks you for scale factor - so no need to do a separate calculation.

David

[adbuch]

[Fastyankee]

Tell me what you want to draw, with dimensions, etc. I will make a video for you.

Joe

Joe I just purchased Design Edge I used Enroute for years but they no longer support my version so I had to switch to something new. Either pay over $1,000 a year for Enroute or buy Design Edge which was not cheap but to me more suited for my needs and has very powerful tools designed for Plasma users not router users. I tried Ink Scape but its very limited for what I do but Inkscape is also very good for a free program but its geared towards drawings more than cad.
I'm working on a counter top steam punk overlay for my kitchen and need to cut a rectangle hole for the sink out of the steam punk imported DKF file.
What I'm attempting is place the cut out in a specific spot and having it drop out of my imported drawing. So my next learning curve is cutting merging the Rectangle to my drawing so it falls out.
Thanks its very good of you to offer the help and I will take it.