Prof. Heitzman says "Grips are Grrrrrreat!"

How to Move an object using Grips:

1. At the Command: prompt, select the items you want to move by picking them directly with the pickbox which is always present at the crosshairs center. You can also pick objects to move by using either a regular window (picking in space from left to right) or crossing window (picking in space from right to left). This will highlight the objects selected and put "grips" (small blue squares) on their endpoints.

2. Pick one of the grips. This will "make it hot" (as they say) and the grip picked will turn from blue to red color. It will automatically become the base point for the move process.

3. Type the spacebar. This will toggle the grip editing menu from STRETCH to MOVE.

4. Move the objects to their new location by dragging the crosshairs. You can OSNAP the grip to another point if desired, or you may simply type in relative Cartesian or polar coordinates if the exact distance to move is known.

A neat trick to use with grips is to highlight both the object you want to move and the object you want to move it to.  Grips will appear at the end points of both objects. Grips are like snap points and can easily be snapped to with the crosshairs. Now type <Esc> (Cancel) only once. The highlighting will disappear but the grips will remain. (Another option at this point would be to hold the <shift> key down and pick the objects you do not want to move, but want to keep the grips on them -- this process un-highlights the selected objects.) Now select a basepoint grip by picking on it with the pickbox at the center of the crosshairs. It will turn red (get hot) and will highlight the object to which the grip is connected. Now hit the space bar toggling on the grip MOVE command. You can move the hot grip along with its connected object to another grip point.

To make more than one grip hot prior to the move, hold the <shift> key down and pick on several grips one at a time.   They will all turn red and be made hot.

To remove the grips from all objects, type <Esc> (Cancel) twice in succession.

How to make multiple copies of an object using "grips"

1. Draw the object or group of objects which you want to copy.
2. From the Command: prompt, click on the object or group of objects.  Notice that "Grips" will appear at the endpoints and midpoints of lines.  Grips are blue squares.
3. Click on one of the grips to "make it hot" (it does not matter which grip is selected).
4. Depress the space bar once.
5. Type   c<RET>
6. Hold <Shift> key down
7. Move the objects to the first position you want to locate the first copy
8. Continue to hold the <Shift> key down and move the cursor to the next location you want to make a copy.  Notice that the cursor will "snap" to a position exactly the same distance from the last copy as you set in making the first copy.  This will work for as many copies as you want to make, as long as you keep the <Shift> key depressed.