Polyedit − Editing connection lines

This command corresponds to the command Change, but it is used for editing connection lines.

When you select the Polyedit command, the command line will show

Select polyline:

This option lets you select the polyline object, i.e. connection line, to be changed. While se-lecting the object you can use the ’W’ and ’C’ and other options available for sese-lecting ob-jects. After you have selected the object, the tool will check if it is a polyline. If the object is not a polyline, the command line will display a message and you will be asked if you want to change the object to a polyline.

Entity selected is not a polyline.

Do you want it to turn into one?

If you answer ’Y’, the object will be converted into a polyline, which can then be edited in the usual manner using the Polyedit command.

After selecting the polyline, the command line will show:

Close/Join/Width/Edit vertex/Fit curve/Spline curve /Decurve/Undo/eXit <X>:

You can select any of the listed functions. Particularly useful are:

Join

’Join’ lets you join lines, arcs or other Polyline objects to either end of the selected Polyline. When you select the Join option the engineering tool will ask you:

Select objects:

Here you can select the objects to be joined (including the polyline object). When you have selected the objects, the tool starts searching for a selected object whose end touches the polyline object, and joins this object to the polyline object. This pro-cedure is repeated using the new polyline end, until the search fails.

The object’s end must touch the polyline object precisely to be joined. If the line and the polyline form a T−joint, they will not be joined.

The figure below shows an example illustrating the Join option:

connection line B − D

For instance, if you have drawn the connection lines A − B and C − D and want to join them, proceed as follows:

Draw a connection line between points B and D.

Select the Polyedit command and point the connection line between A and B.

Select ’Join’ from the command line menu by keying in ’J’.

Select all connection lines to be joined by keying in ’C’ and pointing a rectangle (picking window) at the symbols to be joined, and accepting the selection by the right mouse button.

The number of segments joined to the polyline will be shown on the command line.

Undo

’Undo’ allows you to cancel the effect of the last Polyedit operation. Using several Undos you can undo several Polyedit commands.

eXit

’eXit’ lets you exit the Polyedit operations to the Command: prompt.

Edit vertex

’Edit vertex’ can be used for editing one corner of the polyline.

After a Polyedit command, if you select an object and then the Edit vertex (E) com-mand from the polyline menu, the tool will mark the first corner of the polyline with an ’X’, after which a corner editing menu will be displayed:

Next/Previous/Break/Insert/Move/Regen/Straighten /Tangent/Width/eXit <X>:

Each feature can be given by just one letter. After a command is executed, the menu will reappear.

In CAD, particularly useful options are:

Next

’Next’ allows you to edit the next corner of the polyline, and moves the ’X’

character to the next corner.

corner to be edited Previous

’Previous’ brings you to the previous corner, and moves the ’X’ character to that corner.

corner to be edited

Break

’Break’ allows you to break the polyline. When you select the Break op-tion, the current corner will be saved and a new menu will be displayed on the command line:

Next/Previous/Go/eXit <N>:

’Next’ and ’Previous’ allow you to move to the desired corner and then se-lect ’Go’, which makes the polyline object into two polylines. All seg-ments between the specified corners will be erased. If one of the corners is the end point of the polyline, you will get a shortened polyline object.

NOTE! It is not possible to destroy the entire polyline by selecting both ends.

If you change your mind about breaking the polyline, ’eXit’ allows you to interrupt the ’Break’ operation and return to the ’Edit vertex’ menu.

Next

Next

Next

Go Break

Insert

Using ’Insert’ you can insert a new corner in the polyline object. When you select the ’Insert’ option, the command line will show:

Enter location of new vertex:

Specify the corner point to which the corner marked with 'X’ will be in-serted.

The figure below shows an example of inserting a corner in a connection line:

mouse cursor +

Next

Go

+

+ Next

mouse cursor

mouse cursor

Move

’Move’ allows you to move the corner of a polyline object to a new loca-tion. When you select the ’Move’ option, the command line will show:

Enter new location:

Enter the new location for the corner, to which the corner marked with ’X’

is to be moved.

+ mouse cursor

Regen

’Regen’causes the polyline to be regenerated. This command is used to-gether with the ’Width’ command.

Straighten

The ’Straighten’ option straightens the polyline between the specified cor-ners. It stores the current corner, and the command line will show:

Next/Previous/Go/eXit <N>:

Options ’Next’ and ’Previous’ allow you to move to the desired corner and then select ’Go’ to destroy all polyline corners between the specified cor-ners and replace them with a straight polyline. All segments between the specified corners will be erased.

If you change your mind about changing the polyline, ’eXit’ allows you to interrupt the ’Straighten’ operation and return to the ’Edit vertex’ menu.

Next

Next Next Next

Next

Go

Width

The ’Width’ option lets you change the width of the segment ends after the marked corner. After this selection, the command line will show:

Enter starting width <current value>:

Enter ending width <starting width>:

Specify the values of the starting and ending points of the polyline.

After entering the new data the polyline will not be automatically redrawn;

use the ’Regen’ option to redraw it.

The ’Width’ command can be used, for example, for changing arrowheads.

new starting width: 10 new ending width: 0 Regen

eXit

’eXit’ lets you exit the corner edit back to the Polyedit command menu.

For more information of these commands see the CAD manual, PEDIT command.