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Algebra on coordinate input

Anonymous
Not applicable
Algebra on coordinate input:
This is a very simple program modification to allow users the use of +-*/ while entering a coordinate.
Please see Vector Works.
I think is very little effort for you at Graphisoft and very useful.
Thanks
11 REPLIES 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
Wished many times before, especially by me! I don't believe it will happen!
Autocad has it since forever - I have used it in R12!
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Gustav,

I'm not sure if you are just new to the forums, or new to ArchiCAD, so you may already know that you can use + and - postfix operations on coordinate input (see screenshot of user guide).

Still, general math in all input fields (not just coordinate fields) would be really helpful.

Cheers,
Karl
Picture 1.png
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Anonymous
Not applicable
Karl,
Yes, I am new on both Archicad and The Forums. I'm new also on English as my mother language is Spanish.
I'll try math in input fields as you describe to me.
Archicad is so big that discoveries are a daily gift.
Thank you.

Kliment,
Do you knew that?
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Gustavo wrote:
Yes, I am new on both Archicad and The Forums. I'm new also on English as my mother language is Spanish.
Entonces, bienvenido!

Karl(os)
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Anonymous
Not applicable
Gustavo, I know that and use it a lot!

What I want is the Autocad method, where you can draw a line which is 235+658+6935 cm long!
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
kliment wrote:
Gustavo, I know that and use it a lot!

What I want is the Autocad method, where you can draw a line which is 235+658+6935 cm long!
Here is a way:
Start drawing the line then type the following into the Tracker:

235ar658+6935+, and then ENTER

Apparently when a value is highlighted in any field of the Tracker (blue highlight) you can perform an add or subtract operation on it.
When you first type "235" the value is entered but it is not highlighted so you cannot add to it or subtract from it. Going there with your mouse and selecting it does not help you either because the value gets highlighted but apparently the typed value has not been taken in yet by the program. So if you type "a" (by which you activate the Angle field of the Tracker) and then type "r" (by which you re-activate the Distance field of the Tracker, the value will now have been taken by the Distance field of the Tracker and it is also highlighted, meaning you can now perform as many additions and subtractions on it as you wish because after each, the operation is performed and the field stays highlighted. Then you can use ENTER when the calculations are done.

Note: the purpose of using "ar" is to take the focus off the distance field ("a" key) and then putting the focus back onto the Distance field ("r" key). This applies to the Distance field. If you did this in the angle field, you would have to type "ra" or xa" or "ya", with the first letter highlighting another field of the Tracker and the second letter highlighting again the field we want to work in (in this case, the Angle field).
Another way of doing the above (a universal way because it is not specific to any field) is to use TAB, then SHIFT+TAB. TAB activates the next field of the Tracker, while SHIFT+TAB activates the previous field of the Tracker, effectively going back to the needed field. At least on Windows, I don't know about Mac.

I know it is a bit convoluted but it works.
If someone can figure out a better way, I would be interested to know about it.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
Anonymous
Not applicable
Laszlo, you are a discoverer! 😉

So there are many difficult ways to achieve something so simple!
Anonymous
Not applicable
Laszlo

Can you not just type the R first to highlight the distance field?
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
If you start drawing the line and press R first, then the Distance field is highlighted, but it will display a distance between the two endpoint of the line-in-progress based on your cursor position.
That distance value is not any of the values we need so the first value used in the calculation needs to be entered.

This is why pressing R first does not give the desired result.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27