03 – RDWorks Basic Tools (28:04)

00:10

welcome to another light blade learning

00:17

lab so now we’re going to get into Rdworks

00:20

in a little bit more detail.

00:22

We’re going to tackle some of the tools,

00:24

the drawing tools today. Now I call them

00:27

drawing tools because RDWorks basically

00:30

operates in both a vector drawing and a

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bitmap drawing manner. It can deal with

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both sorts of drawings, but it has got

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some tools in here which operate in just

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the vector mode. These tools give the

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impression when you first look at the

00:51

package that this ought to be a CAD

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package or a vector drawing package.

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Trust me it’s not, as a CAD package or

01:00

drawing package it has serious

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limitations. You need to be doing all

01:06

your design work and all your

01:08

photographic editing work in other

01:12

packages. This is the final stage between

01:14

your work and the Machine, this is

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basically an interface package it is

01:20

not a fully function drawing package. Now

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there are lots of features in here which

01:25

will allow you to do drawing, it’s almost

01:28

like a hospital package. Once you’ve

01:31

imported your stuff into here you can

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still make changes to it, but it has

01:36

serious limitations.

01:38

Having said that, it is an amazing

01:41

program when I first touched RDWorks I

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was really very disappointed, I thought

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what do you get for nothing, nothing!

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So I wasn’t disappointed, but then I grew

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to understand what it was all about and

01:59

it’s an amazing interface that takes

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools (Cont…)

02:02

your drawings and very very efficiently

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and seamlessly without you knowing

02:08

what’s going on,

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converts your drawings into machine code

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that can be interpreted and

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appear on your laser machine. Well let’s

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not get too worried about doing any real

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cutting today, let’s just get down to

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understanding how the tools work. We

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start at the top of this to list on the

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left hand side here. We’ve just got the

02:30

general pointer, it does nothing more than

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what it says, it’s a pointer. The second

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one underneath is a bit more complex, but

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that’s a node pointer and will do with

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that later. OK, now the first tool that

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we’re going to select is a line tool, we’ll

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click on the line and that’s the thing,

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you can’t keep using the same line again

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and again you have to keep going to

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select it which is a bit of a nuisance.

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So we’ve dragged it onto the page and

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really all we need to do is we don’t

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need to hold the mouse button now, we can just

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go click. Alright and that pins it down

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at one end, we can move it around

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wherever we want and now we can use the

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ctrl key if we wish and the control key

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will make it move in just the ordinate

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horizontal and vertical positions. I now

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need to keep the control key held down

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and click the mouse button again and

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that now locks the line in place. Now

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that line, if I put a marquee around it or

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touch the line, you’ll see that it’s got

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools (Cont…)

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handles on it. It’s got a center point

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which is its position point ,if you

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remember we spoke about position in the

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last session and what we’ve now done

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we’ve looked here and

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we’ve still got center position selected.

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So that’s where the definition of the

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line comes from, if we want to move the

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position of the handle so its

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location position is the same as the

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green dot we need to do that.

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OK so now when i move that around if I

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want to move that line from that

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position to say a hundred by a hundred.

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So I make X into a hundred and i will

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make Y into a hundred and there it is.

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So that’s a line ,it’s got a handle on

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the end.

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can I do anything with it? Yeah, I can

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stretch it, i can change this dimension

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as you can see there we changed it from

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zero because it’s horizontal to 232 so I’ve got

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the option of changing and editing the

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line length once I’ve got in there I

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could make it 300.

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So there’s a few things that I can do

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools (Cont…)

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with a line, the line command and the

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line position. The next one down

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it’s called a Poly-gen (Polygon) now what that

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really means is we can’t spell because i

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think it probably should be polygon. Now

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it’s not a polygon in the sense that you

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could create a regular polygon as you

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can with a CAD package for example. What

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this basically means is i can draw a

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line, click carry on draw another line,

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click draw another line, because I’m

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generating a polygon. Now if we watch

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what happens here i’m dragging that line

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around and as i get towards this end

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point here I get a closure

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and now i have created a Polygon,

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because that point there, and I’m going

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to roll with my mouse, my mouse scroll tool.

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I can scroll in and have a look at that

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corner and because this is a vector

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package you’ll notice the lines don’t

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get any thicker and I can see exactly

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what’s happening in that corner. Which is a

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perfect join. So I now roll my mouse and

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scroll out but you need to be very

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careful when you’re scrolling out,

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because if you scroll out too far,

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it’s possible, depending on which version

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of this software you’ve got. That you’ll

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scroll out to nothing and your system

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will crash, so just be careful when

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you’re scrolling .If you want to get back

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to a nominal correct size,

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we’ve got these tools across the top

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which I can talk about now very quickly.

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If we go to the middle one which is

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the most what the one you’re most likely

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to use all the time

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this is basically set it back to normal –

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click and it sets the page back to

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normal. So of those seven magnifying

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glasses atop there, the middle one is the

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best one to really remember. Hmm we will

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tackle those shortly but i just thought

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i’d mention that as we go. Now the next

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tool down is called curve we click on

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that click on the page and

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put a double click on and all of a

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sudden that doesn’t look like a curve?

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools (Cont…)

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It’s a rather special curve, all those

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features that are on the page here so

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far are lines and if there was a circle

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or square there would be a mathematical

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definition that would define the size,

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shape of a linear type object. You cannot

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define in mathematical terms, a free hand

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squiggle but a Frenchman called Bezier,

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invented a system that allowed you to

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draw straight lines which you’ve got a

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mathematical definition and then you can

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grab hold of those

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straight lines and there are features on

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it , handles / levers you can see the lever

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right here. We’ve got a lever down here

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I can do magical things with these

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levers, i can create lines I can stretch

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them i can distort them

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now that’s a free hand squiggle for

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which there is a mathematical definition

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and there are tools up here when you

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select this node tool now, edit node

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there are various tools down here which

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you can play with to allow you to add

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for instance nodes in here add node you

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools (Cont…)

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can put a node in the middle here and

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that will allow me to stretch it out

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there and then the lever click i can

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grab hold of the end of the lever oops

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should be able to

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and I can do things with that lever it’s

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basically like a magnet on the end there

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and it’s attracting the line

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proportionate to its distance and it’s

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it’s quite an amazing tool and there we

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go so we can distort that shape to

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anything we like they’re Bezier curves

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and this package has the ability to

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create these Bezier curves which is

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quite powerful

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I will leave you to play with Bezier

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curves if you haven’t played with them

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before as soon as you select the node

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tool if you watch down at the bottom of

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this toolbar here you’ll see you get a

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secondary toolbar appear

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ok now these are various selections that

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go along with the node tool and if i go

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to the top of that toolbar just there

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look you can see I’ve got a little

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movement cross if I grab hold of that I

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can take that up and i can tuck that

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools (Cont…)

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just in there that’s a more convenient

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place and I can then tuck it right at the top

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of the toolbar so that’s a more

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convenient place to have the node tools

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that are associated with the node

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editing arrow and of course as soon as I

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select the normal tool they disappear

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let’s go back to a normal selection now

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now the square tool again you can click

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on it

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hands off the mouse move it around and

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then click where you want it to start

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now it’s interesting because you may

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be able to

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find the end of that object there click

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hmmm

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didn’t quite work how i was expecting it

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you would think that you know you could

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attach object to something else like

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magnetically by going to the end of it

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like that

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click no, so that doesn’t work only

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with the polygon line can i get this

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magnetic attraction to attach to end of

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lines polygons lines just check polygon

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you see I can attach a line to the end

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there and then i can press escape and

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools (Cont…)

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that gives me a single line whereas I

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can’t do that magnetic attraction with a

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normal

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line now it might look as though it’s

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done it but if we zoom in you’ll find

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that it hasn’t done it. Now the square tool

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you would think that the way that it normally

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operates you can click and click and it

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would produce a square

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no that’s the way you produce a line. Look

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lets just do that again a line click

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click a square you would think I’ve got to

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drop two corners down click first corner

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click second corner

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no it doesn’t work that way. You

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have to actually click on the tool and

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then hold down the mouse key this time

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from the start point and then you can

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drag it around and then when you let go

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that’s it

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so there’s no consistency in the way in

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which they have designed this package so

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let’s do it again and we will start it off

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and we’ve got a rectangle if I hold down

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the control key now and I move around, look

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what happens, I’ve forced into a square and

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that’s by holding down the control key

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ok now I’ve got to let go of the mouse

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before I let go of the control key and

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now I’ve got myself a square and the

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same logic applies to the circle

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well it’s not a circle it’s an ellipse

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tool again i can’t click and click I’ve

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got to hold it down drag out an ellipse

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools (Cont…)

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and either let go in which case I shall

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get the ellipse or i can hold down the

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control key and move the mouse and I get

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a circle but I’ve got to let go of the

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mouse before I let go of the control key

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ok so there’s some basic drawing tools

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and a few guides as to how you might be

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able to use them

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We’ll just clear the page with the marquee

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and a delete all gone

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okay now this next tool is a bit of a

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strange tool its text tool now it can be

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actually a very powerful tool especially

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if you want to do some engraving of

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plaques and things like that but your

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first impression of the tool is it’s

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rubbish

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because you click on it you drag it into

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your page and nothing is there but you

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get this box open and I’ve already

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filled this box with a little piece of

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text which we can change to all sorts of

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fonts if we wish

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let’s just change that to something a

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little bit fancy let’s try that one

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ok you can see clearly that it’s come in,

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in a box that i can move around by

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grabbing hold of a corner

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I can’t grab it down and I can’t grab it

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out to the left but i can grab it in a

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diagonal which keeps

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everything proportionate so i can’t

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really stretch it or can I?

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Yes I can, lets just put that back to normal

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control Z now there’s something else

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that you might be interested in

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just put some handles on it and if i

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grab hold of this side handle

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I can mirror it

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but of course it isn’t mirrored to any special

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools (Cont…)

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extent because I may have got it

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incorrect when I stretched it, it’s a

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free hand stretch which reverses the

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text so let’s just undo that control-Z

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because if you do really want reverse

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text you’ve got a feature here

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horizontal mirror which will achieve the

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same thing for you perfectly

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okay and you’ve also got a vertical

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mirror if you do it twice it reverts

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back to normal

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of course this piece of text is left

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justified

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there are no obvious justification tools

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here and if I click on it I get back

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into this text box and you look in here and

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you think

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no there’s nothing in here either

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I can change the height of the character

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i can change the line spacing i can

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change the character spacing i can

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change the width but that still doesn’t

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justify it right well if we click on any

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one of these characters just catch a

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character and click on it you’ll notice

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something strange has happened

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I’ve selected everything now that’s a

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bit of a clue as to what’s going on

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because it tells you that all of this

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text is sitting there as one group

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object there are two very powerful tools

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at the end of the toolbar here which I

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ignored when I first saw this package

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because I really couldn’t see the use of

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them but as time has gone on I’ve come

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to love them because they’re incredibly

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powerful now the first one is lets just

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if we got a piece of text like this we

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need to put handles on it and then we

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can just go to this ungroup box and

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click when i click one of these letters

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now they’re no longer part of a group in

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools (Cont…)

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fact it gets better or worse depending

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on your point of view

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because if i click the center of this

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“O” you’ll notice that the center of the

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“O” is completely independent of the

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outside of the “O” so if I’ve got letters

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with if you like loose pieces in the

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middle then you need to be careful if

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you’re going to be moving stuff around

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what we now need to do is to go to the

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first line and turn it back into a group

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object so we’ll group it and then we

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go to the second line and we will group

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that then we’ll go to the third line

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group that and the fourth line group

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that so now we’ve got four separate

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groups there are some other very

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powerful tools up here which took me a

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long time to find out how they worked

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one of the most powerful groups are

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these alignment tools here there are

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some rules associated with this grouping

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the last one that was selected which is

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this one here becomes the master i’ll

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tell you what we can do and we can draw a box

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around there like that and what we have

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to do now is to select them all together

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i can either put a marquee around them like

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that so I selected four separate groups

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there and the last group that created

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was this one here check justification

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and now we’ll go and test

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what’s happening here let’s have a look

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at these tools we’ve got one of them

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which is center vertical let’s just see

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what happens when we click that

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Wow we’ve centered the text we’ve center

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justified it and you’ll notice what I

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said the last object that we chose is

19:55

the anchor point and you can see that it

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is still stayed in its rectangle

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools (Cont…)

20:00

ok so we could also select this one

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which is align right now we’ve got

20:09

right justified text we can put it back

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to left justified text with that one

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so these alignment tools are pretty

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amazing so that’s how you can justify

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text if you want we’ll just delete that box

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because that’s going to get in the way

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and in fact we will just do that again

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we’ll collect all that and we’ll make it

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into Center justified text and I can

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move this group around now like this

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even though there are four separate

20:43

pieces of text because I’ve effectively

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grouped them with the Marquee but equally well

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i can click on any one of these marquee

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a particular one and i can move that

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independently and so if that’s the one

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that I want to align because that’s my

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anchor I haven’t changed the anchor

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point we can do this again and I can

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align and I shall align it back to the

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check justification centered on there

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Oh Dear let me show you something else

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so you’ve seen these alignment tools

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here and what they can do but then

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remember that the critical thing is an

21:24

anchor point the last thing that you

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select is the anchor and the last thing

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that i selected was “check

21:30

justification” so that’s become the

21:32

anchor now we’ve got these other tools

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beside it now these are

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different sorts of alignment tools we’ve

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got height

21:44

we’ve got width and this one here which

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is very interesting

21:50

it’s called down and up and you wonder

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what on earth down and up means let me show you

21:54

watch that text fascinating isn’t it what

21:59

it’s done it’s spaced every line evenly

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools (Cont…)

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between the first and the last line so

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let me try that again if we don’t like

22:10

that spacing let’s get rid of the

22:12

Marquee let’s put that one in there and

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let’s drag that one down here

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we’ll put them all in a box again and

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we’ll try that same trick again but you

22:30

get the idea you can play with the text

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using these spacing and alignment tools

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so i think we’ve done enough with text just

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to show you how you can manipulate text

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this next tool here is just called a point

22:45

is exactly that

22:47

now please don’t take this as a pun but

22:50

i actually can’t see the point because

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I normally work with a CAD system if I

22:56

want a load of points accurately placed

22:58

on a piece of material i will draw

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something like a 1 millimeter or three

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quarter of a millimeter diameter circle

23:04

and that produces a very nice hole maybe

23:09

i need the hole for centering off for

23:10

drilling for example i do a large number

23:13

of jobs where I use a pattern of holes

23:15

that I then use a drill and that works

23:19

absolutely superb

23:20

it saves me a huge amount of time

23:22

centering up and finding holes

23:24

accurately measuring them up and putting

23:26

them in the right position

23:27

bear in mind that with this software if

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools (Cont…)

23:30

I want another dot I’ve got to go across

23:32

to here I’ve got to select it and I’ve

23:35

put another dot in and then i’m

23:37

going to go back to here select it and

23:39

put another dot in there is no way of me

23:42

carrying on a chain of dots

23:45

it’s actually far easier to do a copy

23:47

and then do ctrl v with the keyboard so

23:52

wherever I put the pointer i should get

23:54

a copy ctrl v yeah ctrl-v ctrl-v control

24:00

V so i can actually produce a string of

24:02

copies much much quicker

24:05

with a keyboard and then what i can do

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is i can box them all in like this i can

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go up here to my commands and I can

24:17

first we’ll make sure that they’re all centered

24:19

horizontally and there we are they’re in a

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line and then i can make sure that

24:24

they’re all spaced equally between the

24:27

first and the last one like that so you

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know there are times when it could be

24:33

useful

24:34

um using some of the tools that have

24:37

already demonstrated to you

24:38

there are other ways of producing these

24:40

this pattern of holes as well which we’ll

24:42

get onto in the next session so let’s

24:44

just ignore dots for the moment

24:47

Oh something I forgot to show you put

24:49

the dots back in at the moment if we

24:51

take a look over here we’ve got a black

24:53

X if I put a marquee around these you will

24:58

notice something about that X all of

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools (Cont…)

25:01

sudden it’s turned red but that is a

25:03

delete so now the final thing i’m going

25:08

to talk about is this camera I’ve connected

25:12

my phone up and we get the opportunity

25:17

to here, to either get the information

25:19

from the scanner in other words i can

25:21

scan a picture on my scanner or in this

25:23

particular instance I’ve chosen my phone

25:26

to look at

25:28

oh there we go we’ve got some pictures

25:30

bring that picture up shall we, get picture

25:33

well yes it’s a picture

25:38

oh we’ve got some handles now I’ve got

25:40

the right pointer on that means i should

25:42

be able to scale it now, I’ll tell you

25:44

what we can go up here we can scale this we’ve

25:46

got the lock on the scale this down to ten

25:48

percent

25:49

ok so you can get pictures directly onto

25:53

the screen here to be honest this is

25:55

really the wrong way to do pictures

25:58

there’s very few facilities in here for

26:02

working with pictures i will come on to

26:04

pictures later but this is not the point

26:07

to do it i was just really showing you

26:09

have a tool here which allows you to

26:11

import pictures directly to RDWorks

26:14

by the scanner or as I found out from my

26:18

phone

26:18

very interesting but pretty useless

26:22

because from the picture work that I’ve

26:24

done

26:25

you don’t need the pictures here you

26:27

need to do a lot of preparation work in

26:29

other bits of software before you even

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools (Cont…)

26:31

bring it near RDWorks and because the

26:35

picture is live

26:36

look we’ve got delete function over here

26:39

now just above the delete function

26:43

there’s something called LPG design now

26:46

this is a hugely complicated piece of

26:48

the system which I don’t intend going to

26:52

go into now, it’s all about basically putting

26:56

dots dashes shapes onto a piece of

27:01

perspex or other similar sort of

27:03

material so that you can produce backlit

27:06

screens with shapes and patterns on them

27:09

they call them windows but but really

27:11

it’s a bit like edge lit acrylic signs

27:15

it’s a subject all on its own and that

27:17

really is about as far as I want to go

27:18

today we’ve covered these basic tools

27:21

down here we’ve touched a few bits and

27:24

pieces up the top here like the

27:25

dimension windows we haven’t really

27:28

talked about the scaling at the moment

27:29

we did talk about rotations in an

27:33

earlier session so we’ve covered tools

27:36

in this small corner here now we’ve got

27:39

to look at all these other things along

27:41

the top row and some of these other

27:44

features and functions up here which are

27:46

much more to do with the programming

27:47

side of things but we’ll tackle those in

27:51

the next session because these are the

27:53

more advanced tools and some of these

27:55

things down here like matrix

27:58

copies so thanks for watching and we’ll

28:01

catch up with you next time

Transcript For RDWorks Tutorial – Basic Tools