Arch Axis

Description
The Axis tool allows you to places an axes system in the current document. The distance and the angle between axes is customizable, as well as the numbering style. The axes serve mainly as references to snap objects onto, but can also be used together with structures to create parametric arrays of beams or columns.



How to use

 * 1) Press the  button, or press  then  keys
 * 2) Move/rotate the axes system to the desired position
 * 3) Enter edit mode by double-clicking the axes system in the tree view to adjust its settings like number of axes, distances and angles between axes.

Options

 * Each axis in an axes system has its own distance and angle in relation to the previous axis. This allows to do very complex systems such as non-orthogonal systems, polar systems or any kind of non-uniform system.
 * Axes length, size of the bubbles and numbering styles are customizable directly via the axes system's properties

Structural systems
The main use of axes systems is simply to give you reference lines to snap to, but they can also be used to automatically build structural arrays, such as columns grids and beam layouts:



To obtain that result, one or more axes systems must be added to a structural element, turning it into an array. If one axes system is added, the element is copied once on each line of the system, like the beams on the image above. If two systems are added, the element is copied once on each intersection of the two systems, like the columns on the image above. The same axes systems can of course be used in several structural objects.


 * 1) Create an Arch Structure object
 * 2) Create one or more axes systems
 * 3) Select one or more axes systems, then the structure object
 * 4) Press the  button
 * 5) By entering the edit mode of the structure object (double-clicking it in the tree view), you can add or remove axes systems from it.

Properties

 * : The length of the axes
 * : The size of the axis bubbles
 * : How the axes are numbered: 1,2,3, A,B,C, etc...

Scripting
The Axis tool can by used in macros and from the python console by using the following function:


 * makes an Axis System based on the given number of axes and interval distance

Example: