Line Drag Panel

Location: 2D and 3D pages

An example of using the Line Drag panel is illustrated in the design of an exhaust pipe. You can create a cross section of the pipe and drag it along the curved line which represents the pipe. Another example of its use is in the design of a window frame. A cross section of the molding can be created and dragged along the complex curves of the frame.

Drag Geoms Subpanel

Use the Drag Geoms subpanel to drag existing geometry such as lines.

Figure 1.

The orientation vector is used to orient the line being dragged to the tangent of the guide line. If the orientation vector is not initially pointing in the same direction as the tangent of the guide line, the section will be oriented. This may result in the section being rotated. To prevent the section from being rotated, select the orientation vector so that it is along the tangent of the guide line.

Line segments can be used on both of the lines by selecting points on the line.

Surfaces can only be created by dragging a planar line along a guide line. If the line being dragged is not planar, it is projected to the appropriate plane. The mesh w/o surf option does not have this limitation, and does not project the line being dragged to a plane. If line drag, with mesh w/o surf selected, is used before entering the automeshing module, the placement of the displayed nodes for the "along" edges gives only an approximation of where they are actually created when the mesh is generated. Indeed, the lines themselves are only approximations; if the drag is very complex, they may degenerate into a straight line. This does not affect the actual mesh.

Option	Action
drag: node list / line list	Select the nodes or lines that you wish to drag. Figure 2. Two Lines Selected
along: line list	Select the guide line along which you want to drag the entities. Figure 3.
use default vector / specify vector	Choose the direction for the drag. use default vector Use the end of the line as the base point, and use the tangent direction at the end of the line as the vector. specify vector Use the plane and vector selector to select the orientation vector. Pick a base point, if required. Figure 4.
(Mesh options switch)	Select the desired mesh and surface option.

Drag Elems Subpanel

Use the Drag Elems subpanel to drag existing elements.

Figure 5.

Option	Action
drag: elems	Select the elements to drag. Figure 6.
along: line list	Select the guide line along which you want to drag the entities. Figure 7.
use default vector / specify vector	Choose the direction for the drag. use default vector Use the end of the line as the base point, and use the tangent direction at the end of the line as the vector. specify vector Use the plane and vector selector to select the orientation vector. Pick a base point, if required. Figure 8.
on drag =	Specify the number of two-dimensional elements to be created along the guide line.
bias style	Choose between linear, exponential, or bellcurve bias. This affects the spacing of the 2D elements created during the drag.
bias intensity =	Specify the strength of the biasing effect. A value of zero indicates no biasing at all.

Command Buttons