Description
The Attachment Points command provides tools to define or remove attachment points. No selection is necessary in order for this command to be available. Once defined, attachment points facilitate the transformation of frameworks in a highly automated fashion. Since an attachment point has associated normal and forward directions, an object in one framework can be quickly transformed and aligned to an object in another framework with a completely different local coordinate system.
In the Attachment Points frame shown above, one existing attachment point is shown, and is selected. Since it is selected, denoted by the blue background highlight, its associated Location, Normal and Forward direction are shown below. These parameters can be edited in the associated fields for an existing attachment point. Additionally, an existing attachment point can be deleted after selection via Delete in the Options frame at bottom.
Tip: When defining a new attachment point initial location, you can pick points in non-active frameworks.
Click New in the Options frame to initiate definition of a new attachment point. This places you in point selection either via picking in the Display window or direct entry in the Location text field. Once the location is set the Attachment Points list is populated with a new entry, for example, attachment-1. The name for the new attachment point can be edited by double clicking it and directly typing in a new name. In addition the Normal and Forward vectors can be edited as desired. This can be accomplished via direct edit in the associated text fields, or clicking and manipulating the graphical vector objects directly in the Display window. An example of an existing attachment point rendering is shown below.
In the Snap Mode frame you can turn on and off point snapping for both translation and rotation of a selected attachment point. With these checked on, direct translation, for example, of the attachment point via mouse in the Display window will attempt to snap to existing points in the grid or database. Point snapping will only occur for entities in the active framework.