I know from the Docs that “The size of the border and grid within the workspace represents the available work area on your machine”. However I like to design things where features are located with reference to a 0,0 coordinate of the design itself. As a simple example, say I have a 4" square and want to place a hole 1" to the right and 1" up from the lower left-hand corner of it. Typically this corner will be at some arbitrary point in the workspace where I initially drew the square which makes it cumbersome to reference things from it.
What I do today is: I select the square (and any other objects within it) and Group them. Then I move it to the lower-left corner of the workspace, to actual XY coordinates of 0,0. Then I can proceed to create and locate my hole and other features precisely from that reference point. After I’m done I re-select and group and move the design to a more convenient location if desired.
My question is: is the the best way to do this or is there another way to set a reference point for the design itself? Thanks!
The question for me is why is this cumbersome? Are there specific things you’re doing or special needs that drive this? That will help inform if there are different methods for managing that.
As a reference, I’ve never used the method that you describe or felt the need for it. I could also be missing out but in any case, it hasn’t been an obstacle.
Ok, I think I understand now what you are trying to do.
Here is what I’ve done in other CAD programs to accomplish this.
Draw your square
Draw a box or a series of lines snapped to a reference point to get the position where you want the center of the hole on one of your Tool layers (T1/T2). In this case I drew a 1x1 square that is aligned with the lower left corner.
Then draw your circle using the reference point
Lastly delete the reference tooling if you want or just turn off the tool layer until you need it again.
Hopefully this is what you are looking for. I have to do this in Fusion as well and typically draw a series of lines or shapes just like I would if I were drafting by hand as tools that are intended to be erased.
Thanks - that’s a good method to remember. I’ve been able to position things where I want them by entering the desired coordinates into the Xpos and Ypos boxes with no problem using the method I described (i.e. aligning my design origin with the workspace origin). Once that’s done, it’s like any CAD tool where dimensions are all relative to the origin. But if I’d just left the design wherever I’d arbitrarily created it, the origin of the design would be some arbitrary value (like Xpos 7.178 Ypos 5.516 for one I just drew) and that would make it cumbersome to locate other things relative to that point.
I think the answer to my question is “no” but using the method I described meets my needs just fine and I have Carls method as an alternate. Thanks for the replies. Bob
