Numerical Editing
Design Intuition Does Algebra?
Yup! As you prepare to read this, you may be asking yourself "Why should I care about numerical editing? After all, it's simply an alternative to carefully dragging an object's handles to the correct size, isn't it?"
True. BUT...there's something special about numerical editing in Design Intuition:
You can enter formulas!
That's right. You can use any numerical entry field as a measurement calculator!
Want to change a dimension from 2 feet 7 inches to 3 feet? Set the units to Inches and check Feet + Inches. You could double-click it and type in 1 yd, press Return, and the dimension will be transformed to 3 feet. You could also type 2*(2 yd 1/2") - 8' - 13", and although this may look like silly example, it might resemble a useful computation of end-to-end measurements needed by one of your projects.
Where are these entry fields?
- any dimension in the document view.
- the right hand column of any element in the Objects Inspector.
- the right hand column of any element in the Details View.
- the value field in the Attributes Inspector.
You can specify your measurement units using any units you wish (from the table, below), no matter what the current units or measuring system. Design Intuition will automatically convert them into the current units. Specify units as follows:
| American standard | Metric | Other | |||
| Mils | mil | Angstroms | option-o shift-a | Fathoms | fat |
| Lines | li | Nanometers | nm | Cubits | cu |
| Inches | " | Microns | option-m | Spans | sp |
| Feet | ' | Millimeters | mm | Handsbreadths | hb |
| Yards | yd | Centimeters | cm | Picas | pi |
| Rods | rd | Decimeters | dm | Points | pt |
| Chains | ch | Meters | m | ||
| Furlongs | fur | Decameters | dam | ||
| Miles | mi | Hectometers | hm | ||
| Leagues | lg | Kilometers | km | ||
| Myriameters | myr | ||||
| Megameters | Mm | ||||
