Direction of Movement

[Bryan Thatcher]

I have 2 reference line. I have created an instance parameter to control the distance between them. When I change the value, the wrong reference moves. How do I control this? Thanks.

[eric.piotrowicz]

Have you tried locking the reference line your want to remain stationary to a reference plane? Another quirk I have seen is that between two unlocked objects the order that the dimension was originally drawn determines which one moves.

[Bryan Thatcher]

I'm working in a title block template so I have no reference planes, only lines. I have tried locking the one I want to stay stationary. I have also tried re-dimensioning in the other direction and changing the reference from Strong to Weak. What next? Thanks.

[eric.piotrowicz]

How about importing a couple short lines drawn at 0,0 from AutoCAD using "origin to origin" then pin that object and align and lock the stationary point of your title block.

[Bryan Thatcher]

the DWG works to let me know where the origin is. But now it's obvious that the whole title block is moving around when I test the parameters. What am i missing here?

[eric.piotrowicz]

Can you post an example? I would be glad to take a shot at fixing it and provide an explaination. Its tough to know for sure what exactly is wrong when there are so many possibilities.

[Bryan Thatcher]

the top reference lines are moving in the wrong direction. The graphic scale parameter moved the entire title block. Thanks.

[dlpdi5b]

In general, I think of Reference Lines as a tool to control geometry that moves in an angular way, like a swinging door. I think of Reference Planes as a tool to control geometry that moves in an orthogonal fashion.

Others may have different opinions, but I make my titleblocks a single size per family so I don't need any reference planes or dimensions. That also makes it easy if I want to make some global edit to my titleblock and then reload it in the project.

But if you did want parameters to control the geometry, I would first just dimension the lines directly, or if you wanted several things to be controlled by one parameter you could use a reference plane and then dimension from the plane to the things you wanted to move. But you need a "fixed" reference plane that defines the family origin to start from.

To control what moves and what doesnt, you can:
define certain reference planes with the property "defines origin"
pin the planes that you don't want to move

it is also helpful to look at the help files for "anchor symbol"

[aggockel50321]

Try selecting the reference line you want stationary, and then use the "Pin" command above...