Manipulator – Centrum pomocy Bricsys

Command: MANIPULATE

The manipulator is a versatile grip tool to swiftly move, rotate, scale and mirror selected entities. Holding down the Ctrl-key when starting the action keeps the original entities, thus creating a copy. Upon selecting an entity, the manipulator is displayed at a user-controlled location and orientation. The location and orientation are controlled in a similar way as for a dynamic UCS. When multiple entities are selected simultaneously, the manipulator initially is placed at their geometric center. When a selection is built up step by step, the initial location of the manipulator is preserved. The manipulator can easily and directly be dragged to any desired location or orientation using its handles.

Depending on the operation type and if dynamic dimensions are active, a dynamic entry field is available to set the distance, angle or scale factor.

When the current view is parallel to one of the main axes of the coordinate system, as in a plan view, the manipulator is simplified to a 2D version.

The manipulator settings

To display the manipulator settings in the Settings dialog:

Right click the manipulator.
Choose Manipulator Settings in the context menu.

Nazwa	Opis
Manipulator	Controls the display of the manipulator widget. 0: The manipulator is not displayed. 1: Display the manipulator whenever entities are selected. 2: Display the manipulator is the left mouse button was pressed longer than the current value of MANIPULATORDURATION.
Okres manipulatora	Specifies how long the left mouse button should be pressed during entity selection to trigger the display of the manipulator. The value is expressed in milliseconds.
Rozmiar manipulatora	Specifies the size of the manipulator relative to the default. Values between 0.5 and 2.0 are accepted.

To control the location and orientation of the manipulator

The initial location and orientation of the 3D manipulator tripod depends on:

The selected entity type
The point the entity is selected with

Entity Type	Selection point	Manipulator
Anchor point	Orientacja
Linia	Near endpoint	At endpoint	X-axis through the other endpoint
Near midpoint	At midpoint	X-axis through the nearest endpoint
Polyline Line Segment	Near vertex	At vertex	X-axis through the other vertex of the selected line segment
Near segment midpoint	At the segment midpoint	X-axis through the nearest vertex
Polyline Arc Segment	On the arc segment	At the arc center	X-axis through the nearest vertex
Łuk	Random	At the arc center	X-axis through the nearest endpoint
Okrąg	Random	At the circle center	X-axis Parallel with the X-axis of the current coordinate system
Splajn	Random	At the nearest endpoint	Through the other endpoint
Region	On a line segment	At the nearest endpoint of the line segment	X-axis through the other endpoint
On a arc segment	At the center of the arc segment	X-axis through the nearest endpoint of the arc segment
Text, MText Block, Xref	Random	At the origin of the entity	X-axis at the rotation angle of the entity.
3D Solid* 3D Solid Face*	On a face of the solid	At the nearest vertex	X-axis along the nearest edge XY-plane in the selected face.
Multiple Entities	Random	At the geometric center of the selection set**	Parallel with the axes of the current coordinate system

* See Selection Modes to learn how to select a 3D solid face or the entire solid.
** The position of the manipulator does not change when more entities are added to the selection set.

To display the manipulator when multiple entities are selected

Do one of the following:

Select the entities one by one or use window selection, then click to select the last entity
Set the value of the MANIPULATOR system variable to 1: Display the manipulator whenever entities are selected.
Compose the selection set, then launch the MANIPULATE command.

The manipulator layout


Default Manipulator	Classic Manipulator

4 handles: 1 anchor handle (1) and 3 axis handles (2).

12 command trigger zones: 3 axes (3), 3 arrowheads (4), 3 plane swatches (5) and 3 rotation arcs (6)

To move the manipulator

Do one of the following:

Drag the manipulator by its anchor handle (1). Specify the new location using entity snaps.
The anchor handle stands out to avoid overlap with entity grips.
Place the cursor over the manipulator then right click and choose Move in the context menu. Specify the new location using entity snaps

To rotate the manipulator

Drag one of its axis handles (2) to rotate the manipulator. Pick a point or type a value in the dynamic entry field to specify the rotation angle.

To reorient the manipulator

Place the cursor over the manipulator, then right click and choose Reorient in the context menu.
You are prompted: Specify origin of manipulator:
Pick a point.
The anchor point of the manipulator is placed at the specified point.
You are prompted: Point on X-axis or <Accept>:
Pick a point.
The manipulator rotates about its X-axis.
You are prompted: Point on the XY-plane with positive Y value or <Accept>:
Pick a point to define new position of the manipulator.

To align the manipulator with a coordinate system

Move the cursor over the manipulator, then right click and select an option in the context menu:

Align with WCS: the manipulator axes are forced parallel with the corresponding axes of the World Coordinate System
Align with UCS: if a UCS is currently the active coordinate system, the manipulator axes are forced parallel with the corresponding axes of the UCS.

To align the manipulator with the face of a solid

Place the cursor over the manipulator then right click and choose Move in the context menu.
Hover over the face of a solid.
The XY-plane of the manipulator aligns with the solid face under the cursor.
Do one of the following:
Snap to a point on the selected face or on one of its edges.
Hit the Shift-key to lock the XY-plane to the selected face, then snap to a point outside the face.