Handles and grips

A selected element shows small handles you can drag to change it directly, in 3D, plans and sections.

• Square grips move a point: a wall's ends, a slab's or roof's corners and edge midpoints, a beam's ends, a grid line's ends, a column's base, a stair's start, a railing's points.
• Round handles change a size: a wall's height and faces, a door's or window's jambs (width), head and sill, a column's top.

Grips snap to what they land on, and the readout shows the new value. Every drag is one undo step.

Drags are free: the element goes exactly where the pointer takes it, and snaps catch it only when the pointer comes near a corner, an edge, a guide or a grid line. Hold Alt to drag with no snapping at all. Two aids are there when you want round numbers, both off until you turn them on in the status bar's Grid snap menu:

• Grid snap (Alt+S): points and drags land on a grid of the spacing you pick (10 mm, 50 mm, 100 mm or your own), measured from the project's origin.
• Distance marks: while you drag, faint marks every spacing from where you grabbed; near one, the drag holds on it.

For an exact value, type it during the drag (Tab), or click a temporary dimension.

Your grip style

CreaBIM › Settings… › Grips changes how grips look, for you only: Quiet (squares at corners, bars on edges), Edges are the handles (almost nothing at rest; an edge shows its bar under the pointer) or One grip shape (the same small circle everywhere). Rest on one to see it on the selection. It never changes anyone's drawings, and it goes with you from project to project.

Turning, sliding and sizing

• A selected object (furniture or a fixture) has a square grip in front of it: drag it round to turn the object about its middle, in steps of 5°. The arrow beside it turns it round to face the other way.
• A column has a turning grip beside it, and round grips on its sides for its width and depth (a round column's diameter); it stays on its point.
• A stair has a turning grip behind its first riser.
• A door or window has a round grip in its middle to slide it along its wall at the same width; a beam has a round grip on its side for its width.
• A wall has a round grip off the face opposite its thickness grip: drag it to slide the whole wall square to itself, and the walls joined to it stretch to stay joined. Right-click a wall and pick Split wall here to make two walls meeting at that point; doors and windows stay where they are.

Walls stay joined

Drag a wall's end and the walls joined to it follow, so the corner stays closed. To drag an end on its own, hold Ctrl or Alt while dragging, or disallow the join at that end (see Walls).

Outline corners

Slabs, roofs, shafts, sketches and railing paths all show the same grips on their outline: a square on each corner to move it and, on a closed outline, a round grip on each edge to push it. To add or remove corners, or reshape holes, open the element in Edit mode (Enter or a double-click): pick corners and press Delete, drag a ◇ to add one, or right-click for more.

Rest the pointer on any grip for a tip saying what it does. During a drag, press Tab to type a length.

The edge palette

Rest the pointer on an edge of a selected element's outline, in the 3D view or a plan, and a small palette opens by the pointer:

• Offset edge pushes the edge out or pulls it in, square to itself.
• Offset all grows or shrinks the whole outline by one distance, in place. Press Ctrl to make a copy instead.
• Insert point adds a corner there, then moves it.

Each follows the pointer with snaps. Type a distance and press Enter to send it that far the way the pointer went, click to place it, or press Esc to stop.

Shafts

A selected shaft has a square grip on each corner, a round one on each edge and round grips for its base and its top, in every plan, section and 3D view it passes through.

In sections

Select an element in a section: its plan grips slide along the section line, and its height grips move up and down.

Section and elevation lines

Select a section or elevation mark in a plan: the square handles move its ends, the round middle handle moves the whole line, and the handle on the shaded band sets how deep it sees. See Sections and elevations.

Crop boxes

A selected crop box has round handles on its faces and a square handle at its corner to move it. See Crop boxes.