You can use absolute or relative coordinates for acquired points in an action macro.

As you record an action macro, recorded coordinate values can be represented as absolute or relative. While a coordinate value can be absolute or relative, the stored value for all recorded coordinate values is absolute. Since all coordinate values are stored as absolute with an action macro, you can toggle between using the absolute or relative to previous point value for a recorded coordinate value during playback. The first recorded coordinate value or coordinate value after a UCS change is always defined as absolute. An absolute coordinate value in an action macro is used as the base point for all later relative coordinate values.

You can toggle the behavior of a coordinate value from the Action tree on the Action Recorder. You can also change all coordinate values in an action macro to be relative or absolute from the top node in the Action tree.

Procedure

To toggle a coordinate value to be absolute or relative to the previous point

1. On the ribbon, click Manage tab Action Recorder panel. Click the down arrow next to the Action Macro list.
2. In the Action Macro list, select the action macro that contains the coordinate value node you want to modify.
3. Expand the Action Recorder panel.
4. In the Action tree, right-click the coordinate value node and click Relative to Previous.
   • To make a coordinate value absolute, click Relative to Previous if a check mark is present before it. If no check mark is present, then the coordinate value is already absolute.
   • To make a coordinate value relative to the previous point, click Relative to Previous if a check mark is not present before it. If a check mark is present, then the coordinate value is already relative to the previous point.

To toggle all coordinate values to be absolute or relative to the previous point

1. On the ribbon, click Manage tab Action Recorder panel. Click the down arrow next to the Action Macro list.
2. In the Action Macro list, select the action macro that contains the coordinate value node that you want to be absolute or relative to the previous coordinate.
3. Expand the Action Recorder panel.
4. In the Action tree, right-click the top node and click All Points Are Relative.
   • To make all coordinate values absolute, click All Points Are Relative if a check mark is present before it. If no check mark is present, then the coordinate values might already be absolute; there might also be a combination of absolute and relative coordinate values in the macro.
     NoteTo be sure all coordinate values are absolute when All Points Are Relative is not checked, select All Points Are Relative twice to avoid some coordinate values being absolute while others are set relative to the previous point.
   • To make all coordinate values relative to the previous point, except for the first coordinate value, click Relative to Previous if a check mark is not present before it. If a check mark is present, then all coordinate values are already relative to the previous point with the exception of the first coordinate value, which is always absolute.

Quick Reference

Commands

ACTRECORD

Starts the Action Recorder.

RIBBON

Opens the ribbon window.