Up until now we've been editing using things like Object Snaps, Object Snap
Tracking, Coordin Entry. You'll notice when you click on certain objects in
AutoCAD Drawing, such as this desk here, a little blue square will appear. That
is known as a Grip. You can utilize those grips to edit and copy as well. Now,
I'm just going to hit Escape there to deselect that desk. If I right click
without any objects or commands selected and go to Options on the default
right-hand Shortcut Menu there, the Options dialog box will appear on the screen.
Go to your Selection Tab at the top there. Make sure your Grips are enabled. Try
not to Enable Grips within Blocks though because if you've got a block with lots
of entities in it, you'll get a mass of little blue squares and you probably
won't be able to see the block. So it's always good to maybe have that one
unticked until you're sure of the blocks in the drawing. Click on OK there and
what we can do now is we can select the objects that we want to edit. So there's
the desk, the telephone, the chair, the computer and the two chairs above the
desk as well. Notice they've all got different selections of grips there. Now
what I want to do is I want to move and copy those objects into this office over
here. Now, I'm going to do that using grips. I'm not going to go anywhere near
the Modify Panel up here on the Home Tab. That's the Home Tab, there's the
Modify Panel. I'm not even going to right click to select Copy Selection either.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to go utilize one of the grips. So I'm going to
click on this grip here, left click. As you can see, as soon as I hover over it,
it goes pink. When I left click on it, it goes red indicating a hot grip. So now
if I start moving around, all of those objects go with me as you can see. What
I'm going to do though is I'm going to right click and I now get what they call
the Grip Edit Shortcut Menu. So I've got Move, Mirror, Rotate, Scale, Stretch,
Base Point, Copy. These are Grip Editing Tools. They look similar to the AutoCAD
Modify Tools but they're not the same. So I'm going to select Move because I
want the objects to move. I'm then going to right click again and select Copy.
That now tells AutoCAD that I want to move and copy those objects at the same time.
So I'm going to go down into this office here. There's my End Point Snap there,
left click and I've placed the object. Like the Copy Selection Command, I can
now go and copy ad nauseum if I want to. I don't, so I'll press Enter. I then
make sure that I hit Escape to deselect the original objects. Otherwise the next
grip edit move I do, it will select those objects as well. Now, I'm just going
to pan across a little bit by pressing down the wheel on my mouse there. You'll
notice here this left-hand office is the left-hand version of this office over
here on the right. So I need to mirror those objects. Now, there is a Mirror
Option on the Grip Edit, so I'm going to select everything. So I select my
filing cabinets there, my chairs, my desk, my computers, my phone and my other
chair there. Now, again, I want to move and copy but I want to mirror and copy.
I don't just want to move them. So I right click and I get the normal menu. There's
the Copy Selection Menu. There's no Mirror on there. Let's hit Escape once.
Let's go and select the Grip instead. Left click. It goes red. There's my hot grip.
I now right click and select Mirror. I then right click again. Notice it's
mirroring about the grip there. Can you see that? So I right click again and I
go Copy, because I want a copy of it, but then I right click again. Third right
click but I select Base Point. That changes the point where I want to mirror. So
I'm not mirroring around the grip. I want to mirror up here about that point there.
I left click, I go down to Polar Tracking here and switch it on and now I've got an
exact vertical line on the Polar Tracking. Can you see that? Left click anywhere
on that Polar Tracking line and I get an exact mirrored copy. Notice I can go
and copy again if I want to, but I don't want to so I'll press Enter to finish.
Make sure you hit Escape to deselect the original objects and I now have a handed
version of that office on the right-hand side.
AutoCAD 2009 Certified Professional
Shaun Bryant
US$ 99.95
4 hours - 56 Movies
Win Vista XP 2000,ME. Mac OS X
Ground / 2 day / Next Day
33947
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