Check Design and Fixing Problems
When something is wrong, ParametrIQ CAD says what it is in plain words, and offers to show you where it is and, where that is safe, to put it right. This covers the statements you type in the Interactive window, drawings that can't be opened or run, and what File › Check Design finds.
Show me and Fix it
A problem in the Interactive window has buttons under it:
- Show me: for a statement, puts it back in the box with the problem selected, ready to correct; for a design problem, selects the elements it is about and zooms to them.
- Fix it (or a button saying what it does, such as Use TUCK): puts the problem right. Each fix is one step on the undo history, called Fix: …, so Edit › Undo takes it back.
- Details: what the parser or the design rule said, word for word, for when you need it.
Mistakes in statements
| What you typed | What you are told | Fix it |
|---|---|---|
W=TUCKK+1 (a misspelt name) |
There is no variable, point or command called TUCKK. Did you mean TUCK? | Use TUCK runs W=TUCK+1. |
LIEN P1,P2 (a misspelt command) |
… Did you mean LINE? | Use LINE |
W=DEPTH*2 (a variable not set yet) |
There is no variable, point or command called DEPTH. | Set DEPTH… asks for its value, then runs the statement again. |
Q=(1+2 |
A bracket is opened but never closed. | Add the missing bracket |
Q="abc |
Text in quotes isn't closed. | Close the quotes |
Q=TUCK*/2 |
“/” doesn't belong here: look at the commas, brackets and signs just before it. | |
CIRCLE P1 |
CIRCLE isn't finished: it needs more points or values. | |
LINE P1 P2 |
“P2” comes after the end of the statement: perhaps a comma is missing before it. | |
Q=TUCK+[1,2] |
These values can't be worked out together: a number and a point, say. |
A suggestion is only made when a known name is spelt nearly the same (a letter added, left out, changed or two swapped); otherwise nothing is guessed. Setting a variable and running the statement again is one undo step.
When a drawing can't be opened, or a library design can't be run, the message names the line that stops it and says what is wrong with it in the same words.
Check Design
File › Check Design runs every design rule and lists the problems, errors first, each with its rule. In the list:
- Show me closes the list, selects the elements and zooms to them;
- Fix it puts the problem right at once and checks the design again, so the list shows what is left;
- Fix all fixes every problem that can be fixed, one after another (each its own undo step).
The same problems, with the same buttons, are in the Interactive window, so you can come back to them. Before machine output (and Make It) the rules are checked too; errors stop Make It, and its Show Problems button opens this list.
What the rules that come with the app fix
| Rule | Fix it |
|---|---|
| Open cut lines | When another cut's end (or the outline's own start) is within 0.5 mm (0.02 in): Join the ends. The end's point becomes that point, so the outline closes and stays closed as the drawing changes. |
| Very short cuts | Remove the cut: a cut under 1 mm (0.04 in), or one with no length. |
| Lines drawn twice | Remove the copy: the second of the two lines. |
| Holes too near glass and stone edges | For a hole too near an edge: Move the hole away from the edge, straight out until it is as far as it should be, with new variables (MOVX1, MOVY1) as dragging makes. |
| 3D thickness not the material's | Use the layer's thickness: the part's own RULE THICK taken off. |
The other rules only say what is wrong: putting it right takes a decision (where a crease should go, how wide a bridge should be). Rules of your own can have fixes too: see Design rules.
See also: Interactive, Design rules, Make It.