The following section describes the various shapes of the intelligent cursor in different locations and situations in the project.
The ArchiCAD cursor takes on the following shapes when drafting or editing elements, with any tool except the Arrow tool active:
•Crosshair in an empty area in the window.
•Heavy Checkmark at a wall node on its reference line or a beam node at its reference axis.
•Light Checkmark at any other node/hotspot of any element.
•Heavy Mercedes on the reference line of a wall or the reference axis of a beam.
•Light Mercedes at any other edge of any element.
•Intersection at an intersection of edges.
When you click to start drawing an element whose definition requires more than a single spot, the cursor’s shape changes to an empty pencil. It then changes its shape again depending on whether it encounters other elements. The possibilities are as follows:
•White pencil in an empty space or over any element where there is no hotspot or edge
•Striped pencil with black top at a wall’s reference line or a beam’s reference axis.
•Striped pencil at any other edge.
•Filled pencil at a node on a wall’s reference line or on a beam’s reference axis.
•Filled pencil with white top at any other node or hotspot.
•Pencil point with intersection at an intersection of edges.
•Pencil point with perpendicular sign at a perpendicular edge.
•Pencil point with tangent sign at a tangential edge.
When using the Arrow tool, the following shapes are available:
•Arrow at empty area in the window.
•Quick Selection (Magnet) appears whenever you move the cursor onto a quick-selectable item.
•Arrow with Heavy Checkmark snaps to nodes on reference lines of Walls and reference axes of Beams.
•Arrow with Light Checkmark snaps to Hotspots and nodes other than the ones on reference lines of Walls and reference axes of Beams.
•Arrow with Heavy Mercedes snaps to reference lines of Walls and reference axes of Beams.
•Arrow with Light Mercedes snaps to edges other than reference lines of Walls and reference axes of Beams.
•Arrow with Intersection snaps to an intersection of edges.
•Arrow with Perpendicular sign snaps perpendicularly to an edge or arc while dragging an element
•Arrow with Tangent sign snaps tangentially to an arc while dragging an element.
Some cursor shapes only appear in special situations:
•Cloud indicates empty space over the horizon in perspective views.
•Magic Wand used for tracing the contours of existing elements for creating new elements with the active tool. It has three different shapes for identifying nodes, edges and empty space (including surfaces).
•Scissors trims elements (hold down the Ctrl/Cmd key while clicking on an element). The Black Scissors appear on top of element edges, while the White Scissors indicate empty space.
•Eyeball defines the direction of Roof’s pitch, the side that remains selected when splitting elements, the depth of Limited Sections and the orientation of Doors/Windows. It is also used to set the position of curved walls and Curtain Walls placed with the tangential method, when more than one placement possibility exists.
•Double Eyeball locates position of edge-placed Door/Window.
•Sun appears during Curtain Wall input to define the “outside” part of the Curtain Wall.
•Eyedropper appears when picking up parameters from an element as part of Parameter Transfer shortcut.
The Eyedropper is:
Full, when snapping to a Reference Line or axis node;
Half full, when snapping to Hotspots, general nodes or selectable area;
Part full, part striped when snapping to a reference line;
Striped, on top of a normal edge;
Empty, when the cursor is in an empty workspace area (visual feedback only).
•Syringe appears when transferring parameters of one element to another as part of Parameter Transfer shortcut.
•Plus when dragging, rotating or mirroring a copy of an element.
•Double-Plus when dragging or rotating multiple copies of an element.
•Fill Handle prompts you to draw a vector orientation after a fill is placed.
•Hammer places Dimension chains, Angular Dimensions, the Elevation Dimension array, Zone Stamps and Fill areas; it also appears when closing polygons.
•Trident moves Marquee area or the Clipboard contents after pasting.
During a dimensioning operation:
•Magnet plus dimension-line icon: In a 3D Document, after clicking the points to be dimensioned, this cursor allows you to choose the plane in which to dimension the clicked elements.
•Mercedes plus parallel dimension icon: During a linear dimensioning operation using Any Direction, allows you to choose a line or edge. The dimension will be created parallel to this clicked line/edge.
