Using Custom Tools for Custom Transformations

Home: What's New: If You've Used Version 3: Changes Since Version 3: Using Custom Tools for Custom Transformations

If you used custom transformations in Version 3, recall that in that version you defined a custom transformation by selecting an object and its transformed image. The custom transformation remembered all of the marked transformation parameters—angles, mirrors, centers, scaling factors, and so forth. To create a Version 4 custom tool that recreates a Version 3 custom transformation, select the pre-image and image, and select and show the labels of all marked transformation parameters before creating your custom tool. The pre-image and transformation parameters will become given objects in the custom tool, and will be used by that tool to create the appropriate image. Then, in the custom tool's Script View, set each of the given transformation parameters—mirrors, centers, and so forth—to automatically match objects with the same label. The resulting custom tool will behave exactly like a Version 3 custom transformation in the sketch in which it was created, but can be used in other sketches as well. (You'll have to match the given transformation parameters to new objects when you use the tool in other documents.) This technique works even if your pre-image and image are related to each other by constructions or transformations that could not be expressed by a Version 3 custom transformation.