Product Documentation

Available in: FREE, Plus, Pro, Architectural

Direct Input is a quick and easy way to construct geometry. There are no buttons to click or input boxes to click into before entering values. How does this work? Well as soon as a numeric key is pressed Draft it understands that you want to enter numeric data and alters the input method.You can type co-ordinate data regardless of the input mode, i.e. whether Snap, X, Y, Polar, Distance, Scale Factor is the current method.  When a numeric key is pressed a small input box appears next to the cursor, when the key is pressed this value is accepted as the first value or in some cases ( Distance, Scale Factor) the only value required.

There is no need to click and type into the input boxes displayed e.g. X, Y Input shown here, although you can still use this method if you wish.

For example when ready to indicate the second end point of a line. As soon as the first numeric key is pressed a X, Y mode** is automatically selected. The first value entered here is the X value* so press when the value is complete and then locked. Now type in the second value and press the key (this is the Y value). That's it, the point is set.

So for example when drawing line and the start point has been picked you can simply type the co-ordinates of the next point.

** Except when Polar is the current mode, in which case the first value entered is the distance.