"pyotr filipivich" wrote in message
...
"Jim Wilkins" on Sat, 7 Sep 2013
19:05:55 -0400
typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

I settled on entering the shape quickly and crudely in an offset
position, ...

I tried something like that. Wound up with so many things which
need to be a set distance from each other ... setting 18 circles to
the same diameter, with another 18 concentric, and then another 24
half circles alternating convex / concave as they enclose the 18 ...
I
gave up and sought another way.
I'm sure there is a way to do as you say. On less complex pieces
I do it that way. Just be careful when adjusting dimensions.
Nothing
like having what was the right outside line, now a middle line.
--
pyotr filipivich

I was drafting circuit boards and their machined rf-tight enclosures
etc in the same PC board design program, so the line drawing
facilities were fairly primitive; lines, boxes, circles and circular
arcs. It did have plenty of extra layers I could use to draw and copy
guidelines, usually dark grey rectangular boxes stretched to the
dimension between features and tiled together in the background.
http://www.mentor.com/pcb/pads/overview/

I had noticed that creating an accurately dimensioned shape was slower
than drawing it manually, but editing it was fast and easy.
jsw