Feature Highlighting

With Feature Highlighting On, dragging causes features such as p-points or p-lines to be highlighted when the pointer moves across them. Highlighted features can then be ‘snapped' to.

As the alignment with a feature invariably relates to the leg the Components are in, when feature highlighting is active the drag movement is constrained to lie along the leg the selected Component is currently in, not the whole pipe route. This prevents the inadvertent repositioning of Components into a different leg when trying to align with a feature.

When no feature is found initially, the handle moves using the default movement increments until a feature is identified. Selected Components cannot moved past either end of the pipe leg they are within.

Where a derived position is not within the bounds of the leg or cannot physically fit within a segment of a leg, the selected Components are positioned at the nearest extent of the leg closest to the derived position. Feedback is given to indicate that the positions of the items are not in alignment with the identified feature.

Where there is more than one position solution, the system has default behavior to derive the initial position. However, it is possible to cycle through the possible positions and choose the desired one. The P hotkey is used for this.

Subsequent feature identification within the same drag uses the last solution type to derive the position, where possible. If there is no position solution to the feature selection, the system reverts to its default behavior.

Once a drag has been initiated, you can finely adjust the positioning of the selected Components using hotkeys. You can ‘nudge’ the manipulation handle when dragging in a linear direction, using the numeric keypad + and ‑ keys. This moves the handle by + or ‑ the current linear increment.

In a similar way to nudging a Component you can nudge the position of the handle both by the default linear increment for major positioning, and by a fine value for accurate positioning (e.g. clearance from surfaces). To facilitate this a ‘fine nudge’ setting is available, where the granularity of the movement is less than that of the current linear increments.

Linear increments are controlled from the Set Increments window, Refer to Increments for further information.

Similar to the nudging using the + and ‑ hotkeys, the fine adjustment uses the arrow keys on the numeric keypad (or the numeric keypad 2 and 8 keys when Num Lock is ‘off’).

Once a nudge has been performed, moving the mouse has no effect. Nudging restricts the movement within bounds of the leg or segment of leg that the selected Components are within. Nudging does not take the selected Components past an inline Component or change in direction.