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Command of the Week: Issue 4

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Zoom Center

Menu Bar: View> Zooms> Center
(Text Equivalent: ZCEN)

Icon: The Icon for Zoom Center is available in the CC2 Program. Those that have had CC2 since the beginning may remember when it made a brief appearance in the Icon Bars.

#<n>,CC2ZCEN:[Zoom Center]~ZCEN;

Tip: If you want a Command to repeat, use the ' | ' instead of the ' ~ ' before the Command Text. This is true for Menu Commands as well. I have made a Custom Menu just for viewing Drawings that all the Zoom Command Buttons repeat, but in all my drawing Menus they do not repeat, therefore they do not replace the last used Command. This speeds up the drawing process, sometimes!

IconBarDesigner is a great tool created by Chris Conboy and helps customize Icon Toolbars to improve your workflow.

Right Click Icon Context Menu: Any Zoom Icon> Zoom Center

Zoom Center is more a View Center, since there is no Zoom involved. Instead, it centers the viewport to the selected location. This is useful when you are drawing some detail and have found a comfortable Zoom factor, but need to move to a spot that is outside the current viewport, so you can continue with the operation. Pan (View>Pan (Text Equivalent: PAN) ICON is included in Program #<n>, CC2PAN:[Pan]~PAN; ) is another Command that does the same, but Zoom Center requires only one click to move the drawing within the Window.

As with all Zoom Commands and Modifiers, Zoom Center can be used in mid-Command. In other words, you can be drawing using POLY and Zoom Center to change the view without ending the POLY Command.

NOTE: You can not activate this from the Right Click Context Menus in mid-Command, such as drawing a Path or Poly, since that activating the Context Menu will cancel the current command. To use this you will have to activate it from the Menus or, as I do, add Icon to my Menu Bars and use that.

Zoom Center is also useful to move around a drawing while viewing. By maintaining the Zoom factor Zoom Center gives some continuity to the viewing of the Drawing. When I use CC2 while Gaming, I use Zoom Center to reveal only the part of the map that I want the players to see. When used with a drawing that contains a Grid you gain even more precision over the view.

So the next time you are drawing that Coastline/River/Road/Cavern Wall/Contour/etc... use Zoom Center to move along the drawing while you draw.

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