To improve your speed and accuracy when working with geometry, Creo Elements/Direct Annotation now includes its own copilot, featuring:
• Incremental movement
• Size indication
• Snap lines
Incremental movement
You can specify the length and angle increment the copilot displays (the snap and grid size) simply by clicking the Page Up or Page Down key while creating the geometry.
Increment = 1 mm
Increment = .1 mm
Size indication
When you create or modify elements, size indicators show the element's size or modification distance.
Snap lines
Snap lines are similar to temporary auxiliary lines; they appear when you move the cursor close enough to catch them. The default color for snap lines is green.
• Snap line base points
◦ When you hold the cursor at a vertex for .5 seconds (the default setting), a small plus sign appears. This is the base point for snap lines.
◦ On geometry elements, you can have base points at the start point, the end point, the midpoint (of lines), and the intersection between two elements.
There is a limit to the number of base points that can exist at one time; when it is reached, the base point that hasn't been visited for the longest time disappears.
• Snap line orientation
Snap lines indicate constraints, that is, they may be horizontal, vertical, parallel, tangent, or perpendicular to an element. You can catch the cursor to a snap line, to the intersection of two snap lines, or the intersection of a snap line and a geometry element. In the example, the dashed green line and symbol indicates a perpendicular constraint.
• Snap lines on geometry
As you create geometric elements, snap line base points appear as you pick the first and each successive point. You can align each point with another vertically or horizontally.
Base points appear on:
◦ The start point of a line.
◦ The end point of a line.
◦ The midpoint of a line.
◦ The intersection between two elements.
• Snap lines on text
The base point for text is on the attachment point of the text.
• Snap lines on dimensions
The base points for dimensions are on the center of the dimension text, and the snap line is parallel to the dimension line.
• Snap lines on reference lines
On reference lines, the base points appear on the vertices.
• Snap lines on views
Once a snap line appears on a view, it remains visible as long as you depress the mouse button. The base points are the centers of the views.
