Modify Tools

Modify Tools

Editing commands live on the Modify ribbon section, in the right-click Basic Modify Tools submenu, and on the command line.

Most modify commands begin with a two-click window selection if nothing is already selected. If you select objects first, the command uses that selection and skips straight to its own prompts.

Every modify command pushes a single undo step — Ctrl+Z reverses the whole operation.

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MOVE (M)

Ribbon: Modify → Move Command: MOVE, M

MOVE/COPY: Click opposite corners of selection window | ESC cancel
MOVE/COPY: Base point — click or X,Y | ESC cancel
MOVE/COPY: Second point — click or X,Y or @dx,dy from base | ESC cancel

1. Select — click two opposite corners of a window, or have a selection already.
2. Base point — click or type X,Y. Snap to a corner or a survey point for an exact move.
3. Second point — click, type X,Y, or type @dx,dy for an exact displacement from the base.

Example — shift everything 5 feet east and 2 feet north:

MOVE
(window-select)
0,0
@5,2

Duplicate survey-point IDs. If moving would land a survey point on an ID that already exists, a dialog asks what to do: skip, renumber, merge, or overwrite.

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COPY (CP)

Ribbon: Modify → Copy Command: COPY, CP

Identical to MOVE, but the originals stay put. Same prompts, same duplicate-ID dialog.

COPY duplicates objects inside the drawing by base and second point. It is not the clipboard — that is Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V, further down this page.

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ROTATE (RO)

Ribbon: Modify → Rotate Command: ROTATE, RO

ROTATE: Window-select — click two corners | ESC cancel
ROTATE: Base point — click or X,Y | ESC cancel
ROTATE: ° clockwise / DMS | R ref | C copy | ESC (north=0° CW)

1. Select, then base point (the pivot).
2. Angle — one of:

Input	Effect
A number	Rotate by that many degrees clockwise. DMS accepted (45d30m00s)
R or REF or REFERENCE	Reference mode: pick two points that define the current direction, then give the new direction
C	Toggles copy mode — the rotated result is a copy and the original stays
P (after a reference)	Give the new direction by picking two points instead of typing it

Reference mode prompts

ROTATE ref: First point | C toggles copy | ESC cancel
ROTATE ref: Second point | C toggles copy | ESC cancel
ROTATE ref: New bearing ° from north (like props) | P two pts | C copy | ESC

Reference mode is the practical one for surveying: snap along an existing line to capture its bearing, then type the bearing you want it to have.

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SCALE (SC)

Ribbon: Modify → Scale Command: SCALE, SC

Uniform scaling about a base point.

SCALE: Window-select — click two corners | ESC cancel
SCALE: Base point — click or X,Y | ESC cancel
SCALE: Second point or type factor (>0) — dist/base-ref | R = two-point ref length | ESC

Input at the factor prompt	Effect
A number greater than 0	Scale by that factor. 2 doubles, 0.5 halves
A click	Factor is the picked distance divided by the base reference distance
R or REFERENCE	Reference-length mode
C	Toggles copy mode

Reference-length mode

SCALE ref: First point of reference length | ESC cancel
SCALE ref: Second point (reference length) | ESC cancel
SCALE ref: Type new length (model units) or pick first point of new length | ESC
SCALE ref: Second point of new length (preview) | ESC cancel

Pick two points across something whose real length you know, then type that real length. This is how you scale a traced or imported drawing to a known dimension.

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OFFSET (O)

Ribbon: Modify → Offset Command: OFFSET, O

Creates a parallel copy at a distance. Works on lines, circles, arcs, ellipses, and polylines.

OFFSET: Pick line, circle, arc, ellipse, or polyline | ESC cancel
OFFSET: Type distance then pick side — or through-click (line / circle / arc) | ESC cancel
OFFSET: Pick side of object (polyline/ellipse use closest edge) | ESC cancel

1. Pick the object.
2. Either type a positive distance and then click the side to offset toward, or click a through-point the offset must pass through (lines, circles, and arcs only).

Circles and arcs offset concentrically. Polylines and ellipses offset as a whole, using the closest edge to decide the side.

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TRIM (TR)

Ribbon: Modify → Trim Command: TRIM, TR

TRIM has two modes, controlled by the TRIMSTATE system variable.

TRIMSTATE

Value	TRIM starts by	Default
0	Asking you to draw a trim line — two clicks	✔
1	Asking you to pick cutting edges, Civil 3D style

Set it with TRIMSTATE 1 on one line, or type TRIMSTATE alone for a prompt (blank Enter keeps the current value).

Mode 0 — draw the trim line

TRIM: First point of the trim line | type T — pick cutting edges instead | ESC cancel
TRIM: Second point — dashed = removed part (midpoint picks side) | Ortho | ESC

Draw a line across what you want cut. The dashed part of the preview is the part that will be removed — the midpoint of your trim line decides which side goes. Ortho applies.

Mode 1 — pick cutting edges

TRIM: Pick cutting edges (hover highlights) | Enter | type L — draw the trim line | ESC cancel
TRIM: Click segment near end to remove | Enter done | ESC cancel

1. Click the objects that act as cutting edges — hovering highlights them.
2. Press Enter.
3. Click each segment near the end you want removed.
4. Press Enter when done.

Typing L at the cutting-edge prompt switches to the draw-a-line mode; typing T at the trim-line prompt switches back.

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JOIN (J)

Ribbon: Modify → Join Command: JOIN, J

JOIN — window-select lines/polylines that meet at endpoints. ESC cancels.
JOIN: Window-select — click two corners | ESC cancel

Window-select collinear lines, or coaxial arcs and polylines, that meet at their endpoints. Touching chains merge into single objects.

Objects that only cross, or that are near-but-not-touching, are not joined. Use OVERKILL for duplicate and overlapping cleanup instead.

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DELETE (DEL)

Ribbon: Modify → Erase Command: DELETE, DEL Key: Delete

With objects already selected, DELETE erases them immediately — no prompt. Selected survey points are removed together with their linked labels.

With nothing selected, it asks for a window:

DELETE — click two corners to window-select objects to erase. ESC cancels.

Two clicks define a window over the geometry to remove. The window uses the unsnapped cursor position, so a nearby snap point cannot pull a corner off target.

Pressing the Delete key with nothing else happening starts this command. In paper space, DELETE requires that you select the paper objects or viewports first — DELETE — select paper object(s) or viewport(s) first.

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OVERKILL (OK)

Ribbon: — Command: OVERKILL, OK

Cleans the entire drawing in one pass. It takes no selection and asks nothing — run it and read the counts in the log.

Object type	What is removed or merged
Lines	Zero-length segments; exact duplicates; collinear overlapping or touching segments merged into the shortest covering segment
Circles	Exact duplicates — same centre and radius within tolerance
Arcs	Arcs whose underlying circle already exists as a full circle; exact duplicate arcs
Polylines	Zero-length (coincident) vertex steps

Tolerance is derived from the drawing size: 1 × 10⁻⁴ × max(x-span, y-span). Removal counts are reported in the command log.

Tip — run OVERKILL after a DXF import or a long manual cleanup. Imported linework routinely carries stacked duplicates that are invisible until you try to trim or join.

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Clipboard — Cut, Copy, Paste

Action	Shortcut	Menu	Command
Cut	(see note)	Right-click ▸ Clipboard ▸ Cut	—
Copy	Ctrl+C	Edit ▸ Copy, ribbon Copy	—
Paste	Ctrl+V	Edit ▸ Paste, ribbon Paste	PASTE
Paste at Original Coordinates	—	Edit ▸ Paste at Original Coordinates	PASTEORIG, PO

Note on Cut — the menu item is labelled Ctrl+X, but that key is only wired inside the MTEXT text editor; in the drawing it does nothing. Use the menu item. Cut is copy followed by erase, so it works on an existing selection.

• Paste places the copied objects at the cursor, with a live preview before you click: PASTE: Click destination point | ESC cancel
• Paste at Original Coordinates puts them back exactly where they were copied from — the right choice when moving objects between drawing tabs or between model and paper space.

The clipboard carries geometry between model space and paper layouts at 1:1 raw coordinates, and between drawing tabs. Paper-space edits made this way are undoable.

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Grips

Selected objects show grips — small blue squares at endpoints, centres, and midpoints. Drag one to edit the geometry directly.

• Grips honour object snap, so you can drag an endpoint onto another endpoint exactly.
• Ortho constrains a grip drag to horizontal or vertical from the grip start — unless a snap fires, which wins.
• Esc during a drag cancels it and restores the original position (Grip edit canceled.).
• Grip size is set in Settings → Selection → Grip size (px).

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Object isolation

Command	Aliases	Effect
ISOLATEOBJECTS	ISOLATE	Hide everything except the current selection
HIDEOBJECTS	—	Hide the selected objects
UNISOLATEOBJECTS	UNISOLATE	Show everything that isolation hid

Also available from the viewport right-click menu under Isolate Objects.

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ALIGN (AL)

Transforms objects onto a real-world coordinate system from control-point pairs. It is a survey tool rather than an ordinary edit, and has its own page: Coordinate Alignment.

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Undo and Redo

Action	Shortcut
Undo	Ctrl+Z
Redo	Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y

The Edit menu names the step: Undo: Edit hatch, Undo: Import model.

Undo history is per drawing tab and is cleared when the tab is closed. The number of steps kept is set in Settings → User Preferences; a history log is written to %APPDATA%\GoSurvey\history.log.

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Not implemented

MIRROR appears on the Modify ribbon but is disabled — hovering it says "Mirror — flip selection across a mirror line (not implemented yet)." There is no STRETCH, EXTEND, BREAK, FILLET, CHAMFER, ARRAY, or EXPLODE command. See Known Limitations.