Use the Manipulator to edit, move and change entities in BricsCAD

With the Manipulator, you can move, rotate, scale, copy and even mirror entities at hyper speed. It works in 2D and 3D. And maybe coolest of all? It also works on faces and polyline sections!

Keep reading to find out why the Manipulator is one of the favorite in-house tools at Bricsys HQ.

Access the Manipulator

To access the Manipulator:

  • Left-click on an entity and hold for slightly longer than normal
  • Type manipulate into the Command line
  • Select the Manipulator from the Quad

Move

Click and drag the yellow bars to move entities. This movement is constrained to the axis or plane selected. Combine this with BricsCAD's intelligent, zoom-dependent, rounded values to ensure that your entity moves to the EXACT position you want. Perfect for us "OCD" drawing types.

Tuesday Tips - Move, Edit and Change Entities at Hyper Speed with BricsCAD- move

Move an object with the BricsCAD Manipulator.

Rotate

To rotate the entities around the basepoint of the Manipulator, select one of the yellow rotation arcs.

Tuesday Tips - Move, Edit and Change Entities at Hyper Speed with BricsCAD- rotate

Rotate Objects with the BricsCAD Manipulator

A protractor displays on the Manipulator when you select the rotate axis. If you move the cursor inside the protractor, the snap angle is limited to 45°. However, if you move the cursor outside the protractor, you're free to rotate at any angle.

Mirror

Select one of the arrowheads to mirror the entities along an axis. (Mirror is the default behavior.)

Tuesday Tips - Move, Edit and Change Entities at Hyper Speed with BricsCAD- mirror

Mirror entities in BricsCAD with the Manipulator

To Copy an entity, hold Ctrl.

Scale

You can also change the arrowhead behavior to Scale. Use the arrowheads to scale the selected entities from the Manipulator basepoint.

Tuesday Tips - Move, Edit and Change Entities at Hyper Speed with BricsCAD- scale

Scale objects in BricsCAD with the Manipulator.

To change the arrowhead behavior, hover over the arrowhead and right-click. This will open the right-click menu. Use this to change the behavior from 'Arrowhead acts as' -- '3D mirror' to 'Arrowhead acts as' -- '3D Scale'.

Tuesday Tips - Move, Edit and Change Entities at Hyper Speed with BricsCAD- right click-585x407

Hit R to scale to a reference.

Copy

When using the Manipulator, simply hit C, then right-click to make a copy. Once you have made the first copy, hit R then right-click to create multiple copies at equal intervals. Move the cursor and left-click to finish the command.

Tuesday Tips - Move, Edit and Change Entities at Hyper Speed with BricsCAD- copy

Copy entities with the BricsCAD Manipulator

Reposition the Manipulator

By default, the Manipulator displays at the center of the selection set. To move it, select the relocate grips (the grey balls) and pick a new base point for manipulation. As you move the Manipulator across the drawing, it will automatically align with any geometry in the drawing. The "middle" relocation grip moves the Manipulator as a whole. The "outer" relocation grips control the orientation.

Tuesday Tips - Move, Edit and Change Entities at Hyper Speed with BricsCAD- reorientate

Reposition the Manipulator with the grey balls.

You can reposition the Manipulator to the world or user coordinate system with the right-click menu.

Tuesday Tips - Move, Edit and Change Entities at Hyper Speed with BricsCAD- reorientate

Use the right-click menu to move the Manipulator to User or World coordinate systems.

Did you know?

You can change the color of the Manipulator. Type ManipulatorColorTheme into the commandline and select option "2". This will match the Manipulator to the axis colors, meaning that your color options are limitless! Learn more about customizing BricsCAD colors.

Tuesday Tips - Move, Edit and Change Entities at Hyper Speed with BricsCAD- manipulator colors

Change the color of the Manipulator. Left: Monochrome mode, Middle: Classic mode. Right: Classic mode with custom colors.

You can also change the size of the Manipulator in the Settings dialog.

Tuesday Tips - Move, Edit and Change Entities at Hyper Speed with BricsCAD- manipulator size-1024x344

Change the size of the Manipulator. Left: 0.5. Middle: 1(default). Right: 2.

Have you used the Manipulator yet?

As soon as you start using the BricsCAD Manipulator to move, edit and change entities, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it. Go on give it a try today!

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