The Move command has become impossibly jerky

When I started my drawing of many circles (ultimately to become three sets of change gears for instrument lathes) I was first able to create and move my series of different-sized circles into a compact, closely fitting array of nineteen labelled entities. After many tries, I worked out a useful protocol to duplicate that array and then rotate it by 180 degrees. There is not room on my starting plate (of necessity 12 inches square) to fit the starting array into a neat 4 by 12 inch rectangle, so I must squeeze the next nineteen entities into the remaining spaces between the present two identical arrays.

Putting additional circles into these spaces raises the issue of jerkiness again. Instead of being able to reposition a circle drawn in an arbitrary spot precisely into an irregular space, I find that the Move command won't even let me select the position where first to put that circle, much less move into into its final position.

Picture a squirrel which you are rapidly approaching on the road. It runs back and forth in a series of rapid dashes in every which direction. That is how his surviving ancestors evaded diving raptors. Doesn't work for cars, however. His successors have learned to dash in one direction only, so as to get out of the way.

That's the problem I now face with the Move command. My circle wants to be a gear, not a dead squirrel. How do I tame the Move command ?

Hello,

When you create a circle or any other item for that matter.
From the command line box type circle/return,
it then prompts for the origin, there is no need to use the cursor, just type in the co-ordinates ie. 3.25,4.375/enter,
it will then ask for radius, type in ie. .875/enter.
A 1.75 dia. circle will be drawn at co-ordinates 3.25, 4.375.
There is no need to draw the circle and then move it.

The move command.
From the command line box type move/return,
Select your entities/enter.
Suppose you want to move them 2.5 right and 2.375 down.
Enter 0,0/return. (origin)
Then enter 2.5,-2.375/return. (new position, offfset)
Movements are relative to the origin.
Then the pop up will appear, select keep/replace as you want.
You can keep going with new positions for multiple items.

For the start position and the end position you can also use the snap-to keys.

Jerkiness, see the reply to your previous post regarding free snap.

Regards

Thank you for your comments.
Yes, I learned to do the select, rotate & move commands so as to avoid the jerkiness as well as placing the copied block in its new position. See my post earlier in this thread. Entering the exact coordinates ahead of time and entering the exact rotation in answer to the ensuing popup solved the one problem.

The problem of placing the entities was solved by delius with his suggestion to change the Free Snap setting. I did try to "aim" the placement of the entities with some success, but several times I was thwarted when my cursor slid a little while I was clicking the mouse, so I had to use the Move command anyway. By then, however, Move was moving the entities smoothly so I could afford to dither & rearrange things to my satisfaction.

The Circle, Move, and Block operations are going OK for me now.

That said, sometimes a Move leaves the entity in "Selected"mode, and I have to save the drawing and then re-open it to get the outline of that entity to appear normal again. It's an easy workaround, so I'm not complaining.