Typing Coordinates and Values

Clicking is fine for roughing something out. But drafting is about exact sizes, and the fastest way to an exact size is to type it.

Every command that asks for a point will accept one typed. Every command that asks for a value — a radius, a width, a number of sides — will accept a typed number.

This is the single biggest difference between drawing roughly and drafting precisely, so it is worth a few minutes now.

Prerequisites

• A drawing open, and you know how to start a tool — see The Pingendum Window.

First, what a coordinate is

Every point in your drawing has an address, written as two numbers:

• X — how far across it is (right is positive, left is negative).
• Y — how far up it is (up is positive, down is negative).

They are measured from the origin: the drawing's zero point, where the green vertical axis crosses the red horizontal one. The origin itself is 0,0.

So 100,50 means "100 to the right of the origin and 50 above it". That is all a coordinate is — a position written down instead of pointed at.

How typing works

While a command is asking you for a point, just start typing a number, @ or (.

The context bar's field takes over and shows what you are typing. Press Enter and it is used as the point.

There is no mode to switch on first, and no box to click into. Typing is the trigger.

The five ways to type a point

Three ideas explain the whole table:

1. The @ means "from where I just was". Without it, you are measuring from the drawing's origin (this is called an absolute point). With it, you are measuring from the last point you picked (a relative point). Relative is usually what you want while drawing a shape, because you think in "now 30 across and 20 up", not in addresses.

2. The < means "at this angle". 50<45 is read as "50 long, at 45 degrees". Angles are measured counter-clockwise from pointing right, so 0° is right, 90° is up, 180° is left, 270° is down. This is called a polar point.

3. A bare number is a distance in the direction you are aiming. This is the form you will use most. Point the crosshair roughly the way you want the line to go, type the length, press Enter. Together with Ortho — which pins that direction to exactly horizontal or vertical — it is how most everyday drafting gets done.

The order matters for a bare number

The number is only a distance. It carries no direction of its own.

Move the crosshair first, so the program knows which way, then type the length. Typing a length while the crosshair sits on the last point gives it nothing to work with.

Values, not points

When a step is asking for a value rather than a point — a radius, a width, how many sides a polygon has — a lone number is simply that value. No @, no comma, no angle.

Arithmetic

Any number you type can be a sum. Pingendum works it out before using it.

@1200/3,0
(900-18)/2<45
2*6

This saves a trip to the calculator surprisingly often: three equal bays across 1200, or half the clear width between two 18 mm studs.

Arithmetic also works in the Properties panel's fields.

Units, feet and angles

Lengths accept feet and inches, and fractions:

12'6"
3 1/2

Angles accept degrees-minutes-seconds, gradians and radians:

45d30'15"
50g
0.8r

Common mistake: the decimal separator is always a full stop

Whatever your computer's regional settings say, Pingendum uses . for decimals — because , already means "here comes the next coordinate".

100,50 is a point (x 100, y 50). 100.50 is a single number. If a typed point lands somewhere wild, this is the first thing to check.

What a plain number means is decided by the drawing's units. Format ▸ Units (UN) sets the unit, how lengths and angles are displayed, and which way 0° points. See Drawing in other units.

The user origin

Normally everything is measured from the drawing's origin. View ▸ User Origin (UO) lets you move — and rotate — the axes that coordinates are typed and read in.

Why you would. Suppose a wall runs at 13° to everything else. Working in true horizontal and vertical along it is miserable. Set a user origin along that wall and @2400,0 now runs along the wall, not along true horizontal. The status bar's coordinate readout follows the new axes too.

Typing at the cursor

There is a second input style, off by default. Turn on Type at the cursor in Preferences ▸ Cursor and Mouse, and the values shown next to the cursor accept your typing instead of the context bar.

• The pair shown is Length then Angle, or X then Y, depending on what the command needs.
• Tab moves between the two fields.
• Enter accepts the point.

The useful part is locking. A field you type into and then leave is locked. Lock the length, and the line keeps that exact length while it swings freely with the cursor until you choose the angle. It is the quick way to get "600 long, at whatever angle looks right".

Undoing a point without leaving the tool

Typed a point wrong? Press U. It takes back the last point and lets you carry on in the same command.

Esc would abandon the whole command instead — useful when you want out, unhelpful when you just mistyped one number.

Next Steps

Typed coordinates give you exact positions. The next chapter covers the other half of precision: snapping onto geometry you have already drawn.

Next: Precision Object Snaps