janderson

In the same vein, you can Combine the shapes you want to re-use. Make sure the anchor point of the combined shapes is at a place where you can snap it onto the next part you want to put on. Then, select the combined shapes and put them in a catalog. Note: A peculiarity of Ironcad 8.0 is that you can't use the Triball snaps to move the anchor point of the combined shapes in the scene, but triball snaps to move the anchor point will work in Edit Catalog Item. When the anchor point is in a good place to snap onto the next part, simply drag the combined shapes out of the catalog and onto the part. I use this type of thing for plastic injection molds, where I take the part, and a positive of the the sprue and runner system, then Boolean parts and Combine shapes as necessary to create one single part. Then, drag the whole thing into a catalog when selected as a shape. Then, use 'Edit Catalog Item', and apply the shrink factor as a multiplier on the shape's handles, then, use Shape + Set Operation to change the resulting enlarged shape's action to Remove Material. Now I can drag it onto the mold and create my cavities.

I've been experimenting with all kinds of variations of commands and button arrangements for the space mouse for years. I finally have a setup I really like and it has become second nature to use since it is logical (to me at least) and puts the most frequent keyboard key presses on the space mouse or the mouse. I won't try to justify all this. Button 1 turns triball on-off, button 2 toggles Move Triball Only, button * is for selection. button 3 retargets the center of rotation, and button 4 is Look At. Button 5 turns the Scene Browser on-off, button 6 and 7 vary the space mouse sensitivity. Button 8 Fits All onto the screen. The other trick is to set the mouse middle button to Pan and the scroll wheel to Zoom (the default). Now, you can use the Look At button on the Space Mouse to be normal to something and use the middle mouse button to Pan, and the scroll wheel to zoom in-out. I don't use any of the keyboard + mouse button combinations any more. This setup, once you're used to it, allows you to greatly reduce your keyboard dependance and get productive. It feels pretty seamless, too, since you can concentrate on the screen more.

When you've been using mechanism mode a lot you tend to get tired of right clicking to see whether something is locked or not, and having the triball unexpectedly not move something, and using the menus to go into mechanism mode, etc. My favorite toolbar solves these problems. The left hand icon sends you into mechanism mode, The second one is searching (just because its not on any other toolbar), the third icon is for interference checking (nice), the fourth icon is for locking contraints (to put it all in one place, though there is already an icon for this), and the last one is for lock/unlocking position of parts or assemblies (best of all because it shows you at a glance whether or not the selected entity is locked or not, and allows you to lock/unlock with one click). Ironcad has all the icons, but just neglected this dandy toolbar, so make your own it only takes a minute.