[SOLVED] Store object positions

[cls77]

Hi all,
I am using QCAD to draw folding knives, in particular to design the blade open / close mechanism.
To do so, i draw the blade and rotate it manually to simulate the opening and closing movements, but this is not precise for me.
I would like to know if there is a way to save / store one or more position of a polyline / object in order to have two fixed positions (open and closed) and use them to test the mechanism more quickly.

The ideal would be that everytime I make a modification to the blade, then I can test it automatically in the two positions...
Is it possible to do this?

I attach two images, the blade of course is the red object (a polyline on its own layer)

Blade open

backlock-open.jpg (25.21 KiB) Viewed 6235 times

Blade closed

backlock-closed.jpg (50.96 KiB) Viewed 6235 times

Thanks in advance

[andrew]

You could create a block from the blade part and insert it twice in the open and closed position. If you edit the block (double-click on it), both instances are updated.

Blocks are essentially named groups that can be inserted multiple times at different positions with different angles, etc.

[cls77]

thank you Andrew, I will try to do as you suggest

[cls77]

ok, it works.... I created a block and inserted it twice, in open and closed position but there is a problem: now if I modify the blade in the block edit screen, I see no more the levels with other knife parts, and this is important to me because the blade position hinges on the other parts (e.g. contact points with the blue entity... ) and on the entire project so I need to see other levels...

is there some kind of "block edit in place" function?

thanks!

[CVH]

Hi,

No, what you can do is explode the block in model space, alter and renew the block.

Regards,
CVH

[cls77]

ok thanks,
how can I "renew" the block? By creating a new block, or there's an "update block" function?

[CVH]

Hi,

Keep you blade entities on a specific layer...

At that point it is easy to select only that layers entities (R-click in layer list)
With the entities selected >> Create block from selection (BC)
Same origin
Same block name
Overwrite !

Regards,
CVH

[cls77]

ok i created two separated levels, one with the "blade-block" in open position, the other with the block in closed position
for example: i want to modify the shape of the blade: I explode the open position block, make my modifications and when finished, I create a block from selection, setting as name "blade-block" and overwrite the existing one.
At this point the closed block is also updated, BUT loses his original position and takes the position of the open blade.... it becomes a copy, so I have to put again in the right position..... and this is not good for me

in this example, the bottom blade was in the right closed position, but after the block modifications, has moved in the actual position..
is that normal?

blocco-pompa-completo.jpeg (39.74 KiB) Viewed 6195 times

[cls77]

ok I got it... when I created the new block from the selected (modified) entity, I had to select as a reference the center of the circle, eg. the hole in the blade, that is the only point in common between the open and closed blocks instances

thank you very much for your help, very useful!

[CVH]

Glad I could help you.

Pls mark the topic as [SOLVED] in your first post.
Cheers!
CVH