coordinate entry

Home > Typing coordinates

< Previous: Points | Next: Lines, rays & segments >

Modeling - Drawing

Typing coordinates

Drop a point at exact coordinates by typing them into the command palette - in your own units, absolute or relative.

Sometimes you know exactly where a point goes. Instead of clicking and then correcting it in the Layers panel, type the coordinates straight into the modeling command palette.

Placing a point by coordinates

With the modeling window focused, open the command palette and type a pair of numbers separated by a comma or a space:

40, 25

Locus offers a New Point (40, 25) command; press Enter and it drops a free point there and selects it - one undo step.

Your units, not millimeters

The numbers are read in your current display unit (set in Preferences) and converted for you. Locus stores all geometry in millimeters under the hood, but you never have to think in mm unless that's your working unit - type 1, 0.5 in inches and you get a point one inch over, half an inch up. The preview shows the unit so you can confirm.

Relative to a selected point

Select a single point first, then lead the entry with + or - and Locus reads the pair as an offset from that point:

• Selected point at (0.5, 0.5), type +0.1, 0.5 -> a new point at (0.6, 1.0).

With no single point selected, a leading sign is just a negative coordinate - -5, 3 still makes an absolute point at (-5, 3).

Tip

Because the shorthand can begin with a sign or a decimal point, the palette opens on ., +, and - as well as on letters and digits. Just start typing the coordinate - you don't need to open the palette first.

Moving a point you've already placed

To reposition an existing point, expand its row in the Layers panel and edit its X / Y fields - those accept arithmetic, not just a plain number: +, -, *, and /, with normal precedence (so 10*2+5 reads as 25). The same expressions work in node number inputs. See Points.

Note

Millimeters are the internal unit. Everything you type in a unit-bearing field - here, the Layers-panel X/Y fields, and node number inputs - is converted to millimeters for storage and back to your display unit for reading. If a number ever looks off by a unit-conversion factor, check your working unit in Preferences.

Note

The node graph has its own version of this. Typing x, y into the node search creates a Point node at those coordinates, with the same relative-offset rule. It differs in one way that matters: node search does not convert from your working unit, because node numbers are always millimeters. See Adding & connecting nodes.

< Previous: Points | Next: Lines, rays & segments >

Related

• Points | Preferences | Adding & connecting nodes