Drawing Production.pdf

Drawing Production Using VANTAGE PDMS

Version 11.6SP1

pdms1161/Drawing Production issue 260605

PLEASE NOTE: AVEVA Solutions has a policy of continuing product development: therefore, the information contained in this document may be subject to change without notice. AVEVA SOLUTIONS MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND WITH REGARD TO THIS DOCUMENT, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. While every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of this document, AVEVA Solutions shall not be liable for errors contained herein or direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance or use of this material. This manual provides documentation relating to products to which you may not have access or which may not be licensed to you. For further information on which Products are licensed to you please refer to your licence conditions. Copyright 1991 through 2005 AVEVA Solutions Limited All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of AVEVA Solutions. The software programs described in this document are confidential information and proprietary products of AVEVA Solutions or its licensors.

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Revision History

Date Version Notes

October 2003 11.5 The structure of document has been updated in line with other documents in the series. The technical content is unchanged. Much of the text has been reworded and additional illustrations of forms and screen elements have been included.

Sept 2004 11.6 Updated to include new features of this version of PDMS.

March 2005 11.6.SP1 Updated and corrected for this release.

Drawing Production Using VANTAGE PDMS Revision History-i Version 11.6SP1

Revision History

Revision History-ii Drawing Production Using VANTAGE PDMS Version 11.6SP1

Contents

1. Read This First..............................................................................1-1 1.1. The scope of this guide..............................................................................1-1

1.1.1. Intended audience.................................................................................. 1-1 1.1.2. Preconditions and assumptions ............................................................. 1-1 1.1.3. Tutorial exercise..................................................................................... 1-2 1.1.4. Further reading....................................................................................... 1-2

1.2. Text conventions........................................................................................1-2 1.3. Terminology ...............................................................................................1-3 1.4. How this guide is Organised ......................................................................1-3 1.5. Further training in the use of PDMS ..........................................................1-4 2. Introducing VANTAGE PDMS and the Draft Module..................2-1 2.1. The strengths and structure of PDMS .......................................................2-1 2.2. The structure and functions of Draft ..........................................................2-2

2.2.1. General functions................................................................................... 2-2 2.2.2. Labelling................................................................................................. 2-3 2.2.3. Dimensioning ......................................................................................... 2-3 2.2.4. 2D drafting.............................................................................................. 2-3 2.2.5. Automatic drawing production application ............................................. 2-4 2.2.6. AutoDRAFT application ......................................................................... 2-4 2.2.7. Administration ........................................................................................ 2-4

3. Getting Started..............................................................................3-1 3.1. Basic information .......................................................................................3-1

3.1.1. Using the mouse .................................................................................... 3-1 3.1.2. Using menus .......................................................................................... 3-2 3.1.3. Using forms ............................................................................................ 3-2 3.1.4. Using text boxes..................................................................................... 3-3 3.1.5. Using drop-down lists............................................................................. 3-3 3.1.6. Using option buttons .............................................................................. 3-4 3.1.7. Using check boxes................................................................................. 3-4 3.1.8. Using scrollable lists............................................................................... 3-4 3.1.9. Using action buttons............................................................................... 3-4 3.1.10. Responding to alert forms...................................................................... 3-5

3.2. Logging in ..................................................................................................3-5 3.3. The Draft startup display............................................................................3-8 3.4. Using on-line help ....................................................................................3-11 3.5. Loading an existing drawing sheet ..........................................................3-12

3.5.1. The Draft database hierarchy .............................................................. 3-12 3.5.2. The Draft Explorer................................................................................ 3-13 3.5.3. Displaying the sheet............................................................................. 3-14

3.6. Using the mouse and keyboard to manipulate the view of the sheet ......3-15 3.6.1. Mouse buttons...................................................................................... 3-15 3.6.2. Zooming and panning .......................................................................... 3-18

Drawing Production Using VANTAGE PDMS Contents-i Version 11.6SP1

Contents

4. Setting up the Hierarchy to Create a Drawing Sheet .................4-1 4.1. Creating a Department ..............................................................................4-1 4.2. Creating a Registry ....................................................................................4-3 4.3. Creating Drawings and Sheets ..................................................................4-5 5. Views..............................................................................................5-1 5.1. Modifying an existing View to make it user-defined...................................5-2

5.1.1. Defining the Drawlist contents ............................................................... 5-3 5.1.2. Setting the scale..................................................................................... 5-5 5.1.3. Other options.......................................................................................... 5-5 5.1.4. Displaying the contents of the View....................................................... 5-6

5.2. Creating a Sheet and a limits-defined View.............................................5-12 5.2.1. Setting the contents of the View .......................................................... 5-14

6. Using the 3D View.........................................................................6-1 6.1. Manipulating the 3D View..........................................................................6-3

6.1.1. Positioning the 3D View ......................................................................... 6-3 6.2. Selecting 3D Content.................................................................................6-6 7. Labelling ........................................................................................7-1 7.1. Creating a General Label...........................................................................7-1 7.2. Modify Mode ..............................................................................................7-5

7.2.1. Entering and Exiting Modify Mode ......................................................... 7-5 7.2.2. Item Selection and Display Details ........................................................ 7-5 7.2.3. Positioning.............................................................................................. 7-7

7.3. Modifying Labels Graphically.....................................................................7-8 7.4. 2D Positioning Menu Options ..................................................................7-13 7.5. Gaps in Labels.........................................................................................7-14 7.6. Label Leader Attributes............................................................................7-18 8. Dimensioning ................................................................................8-1 8.1. Creating Linear Dimensions ......................................................................8-3

8.1.1. Deleting dimension points...................................................................... 8-8 8.1.2. Modifying linear dimensions graphically ................................................ 8-8

8.2. Angular dimensions .................................................................................8-10 8.2.1. Modifying angular dimensions graphically ........................................... 8-12

8.3. Radial dimensions ...................................................................................8-14 8.3.1. Modifying radial dimensions graphically .............................................. 8-15

9. Automatic Drawing Production ...................................................9-1 9.1. General ADP..............................................................................................9-1

9.1.1. ADP application menu ........................................................................... 9-2

10. 2D Drafting ..................................................................................10-1 10.1. The 2D Drafting hierarchy........................................................................10-1 10.2. Exercises in 2D Drafting ..........................................................................10-2

10.2.1. Creating sheet note and view note elements....................................... 10-2 10.2.2. Creating primitives ............................................................................... 10-3 10.2.3. Editing 2D primitives graphically .......................................................... 10-5

Contents-ii Drawing Production Using VANTAGE PDMS Version 11.6SP1

Contents

11. Section Planes ............................................................................11-1 11.1. Creating a Section Plane.........................................................................11-2 11.2. Editing a Section Plane............................................................................11-4 11.3. Editing Stepped Planes ...........................................................................11-6 12. More you can do .........................................................................12-1 12.1. User utilities .............................................................................................12-1

12.1.1. Defining a menu to execute a command ............................................. 12-2 12.1.2. Defining a menu to display a form ....................................................... 12-2

Appendix A: The Draft Database......................................................... A-1

Appendix B: Other Documentation..................................................... B-1

Index.................................................................................................Index i

Drawing Production Using VANTAGE PDMS Contents-iii Version 11.6SP1

Contents

Contents-iv Drawing Production Using VANTAGE PDMS Version 11.6SP1

1. Read This First

1.1. The scope of this guide

This guide introduces some of the facilities provided by Draft, which is the module of AVEVAs VANTAGE Plant Design Management System (PDMS) used for the generation of fully annotated engineering drawings directly from design data. The guide explains the main concepts underlying Draft and its supporting applications, and shows how you can apply these to your own projects. The chapters of this guide take the form of a hands-on tutorial exercise combined with frequent explanation of the underlying concepts. As you work progressively through the exercise, you will gain practical experience of the ways in which you can use Draft, while learning about the powerful facilities it provides. The guide does not give step-by-step instructions on how to carry out specific drawing functions. You can access such information as you work, by using the On-line Help. You are told how to do this at an early stage of the tutorial.

1.1.1. Intended audience

This guide has been written for engineers who are familiar with drafting practices but who may or may not have prior knowledge of computer-aided design systems.

1.1.2. Preconditions and assumptions

For you to use this guide, the sample PDMS project, Project SAM, must be correctly installed on your system, and you must have read/write access to the project databases. It is assumed that you know:

where to find PDMS on your computer system how to use the Windows operating system installed at your site.

Contact your systems administrator if you need help in either of these areas.

Drawing Production Using VANTAGE PDMS 1-1 Version 11.6SP1

Read This First

1.1.3. Tutorial exercise

The tutorial exercise runs through the guide, preceded by and interspersed with sections and paragraphs giving general information. The steps of the exercise are numbered sequentially throughout the guide. The areas of general information are separated from the tutorial as follows: The start of the exercise is indicated like this:

Exercise begins: Each interval in the exercise for inclusion of general information is preceded by a line across the page, like this:

Continuation of the exercise after each interval is shown like this:

Exercise continues:

1.1.4. Further reading

You can find a list of relevant AVEVA documentation in the appendices of this guide.

1.2. Text conventions

This guide uses the following text conventions:

Serif for the majority of the text.

Bold to highlight important information, and to introduce special terminology.

Serif italic to denote internal cross references and citations.

Sans-serif to denote keys on your keyboard.

Sans-serif bold for menu names and options, and for the names of forms.

Typewriter for text within a form, including text that you enter yourself using the keyboard.

1-2 Drawing Production Using VANTAGE PDMS Version 11.6SP1

Read This First

1.3. Terminology

The following terms are used throughout this guide to describe what action to carry out:

Enter Type text into the specified dialogue box, then press the Enter (or Return) key to confirm the entry.

Click Place the mouse pointer over a specified point, then quickly press and release the designated mouse button. If no button is specified, use the left-hand mouse button.

Pick Click on the required item to select it. Drag Place the mouse pointer over a specified point, then press and

hold down the required (normally left) mouse button while moving the pointer to a second specified point. Release the button over the second point.

Double-click Place the mouse pointer over a specified point, then click the left-hand mouse button twice in quick succession.

1.4. How this guide is Organised

This guide is divided into chapters and appendices, as follows:

Chapter 1 introduces this guide and summaries its scope. Chapter 2 gives a general overview of the structure and strengths of

PDMS and of the Draft module. Chapter 3 describes essential elements of the graphical user interface

and how to start up PDMS Draft. (If you are already familiar with Motif forms and menus interfaces, you should be able to read through this part of the chapter rapidly.) The chapter describes how to display an existing drawing sheet and includes an explanation of the relevant part of the Draft database hierarchy. The method of accessing on-line help is included.

Chapter 4 describes how to create the elements of the Draft hierarchy, as necessary to create a new drawing sheet.

Chapter 5 describes how to set up Views, which define the parts of the model that are drawn on a drawing sheet

Chapter 6 describes how to populate drawing Sheets using the 3D View functionality.

Chapter 7 describes how to add Labels to items that appear in Views. It also describes how to change the appearance of the labels.

Chapter 8 describes how to add dimensions to the engineering items that appear in Views.


Read This First

Chapter 9 describes how to produce a dimensioned and labelled drawing

automatically. Chapter 10 describes how to add text and basic graphical shapes to

existing sheets and views. Chapter 11 describes how to create and manipulate section planes. Chapter 12 describes a useful utility. Appendix A illustrates the Draft database hierarchy. Appendix B identifies other sources of information that supplement and

expand upon the brief details given in this guide.

The guide concludes with an index, allowing you to refer back to any specific topics about whose details you need to be reminded.

1.5. Further training in the use of PDMS

This guide teaches you to about the key features of using PDMS for drawing production. If you wish to learn more about the wide-ranging facilities of PDMS, AVEVA provides a wide range of training courses, covering all levels of expertise and all design disciplines. For details of courses, and to arrange course attendance, contact your nearest AVEVA support office (see the copyright page at the front of this guide for our web address).


2. Introducing VANTAGE PDMS and the Draft Module

2.1. The strengths and structure of PDMS

PDMS is a powerful suite of facilities, for the design of Process Plant, the emphasis being on maximising both design consistency and design productivity:

The design modelling functions incorporate a degree of apparent intelligence that enables them to make sensible decisions about the consequential effects of many of your design choices. This allows you to implement a sequence of related decisions with a minimum of effort.

You can incorporate modifications into your design at any stage without fear of invalidating any of your prior work, because data-consistency checking is an integral part of the product. PDMS automatically manages drawing production, material take-off reports, and so on, by reading all design data directly from a common set of databases, to prevent errors from being introduced by transcribing information between different disciplines.

The applications let you check all aspects of your design as work progresses. This includes on-line interdisciplinary clash detection, so the chances of errors and inconsistencies reaching the final documented design are reduced to an exceptionally low level.

The applications are controlled from a graphical user interface. This means that all design, drawing and reporting operations are initiated by selecting choices from menus, and by entering data into on-screen forms. For ease of use, pictorial icons also represent many common actions.

On-screen help is available to assist you whenever you need help.

PDMS is subdivided into modules, which are used to carry out specific types of operation. This guide covers the Draft module, which is used for generating annotated and dimensioned drawings of 3D models, produced in the Design module.


Introducing VANTAGE PDMS and the Draft Module

2.2. The structure and functions of Draft

Draft is the drawing production module of PDMS. It allows you to generate fully annotated engineering drawings directly from data in the PDMS Design model. Drawings can be easily updated to reflect changes in the design model. Within Draft there are applications that are used for specific functions associated with the production of drawings. These applications are called:

General Auto Drawing Production AutoDRAFT.

The functions of the applications, together with some notes on administration, are discussed in the following sub-sections.

2.2.1. General functions

The Draft Graphical User Interface has been designed to allow you to generate and retrieve industry-standard engineering drawings quickly and efficiently. You can then add dimensioning and other annotations. You do not need to make any calculations or input any data, as all annotation information comes directly from the design model.

Drawing Creation

You select the particular part of the design model and the direction and scale to use. The design model can be viewed from any angle at any scale, including isometric views, with perspective if required. The appearance of the 3D graphics is controlled from representation rules that are pre-defined by the project administrator. This allows different types of design items to have different line styles applied to them. You can select the required representation during view creation. Various levels of wireline and hidden-line removal can be used. Sectional views can be generated by the creation of flat or stepped section planes, and there are no restrictions on the number of planes created or the selection of items that can be sectioned. The scale of the 3D graphics can be selected from a set of Metric, Architectural and Engineering values, with the option of an automatic scale selection to use the largest scale possible for the given design data and drawing sheet size.

Hierarchy

Facilities are available for specifying details of the hierarchy within the Draft database for the location of the drawings and their sheets.



2.2.2. Labelling

Labels can be attached to any design element and used to display any attribute of the element. You can control the format, content and appearance of the labels, with suitable project defaults defined by the administrator. Direct reference to the design data, combined with a simple update annotation operation, means that the annotation always reflects the current state of the design model. The position and orientation of the labels can be modified graphically, to ensure a clear drawing layout.

Automatic labelling (Autotagging)

Labels can be automatically generated for a set of design items that match a tagging rule. The rule sets determine the type of label and which design items the labels will be applied to. For example, you could label all nozzles that have a bore of >100mm and


2.2.5. Automatic drawing production application

The Automatic Drawing Production application enables you to produce annotated drawings automatically. You can set rules that determine how the annotation is produced. The drawings can then be edited, if necessary, using the normal drawing editing options in Draft. The application contains three separate utilities, which are used for different disciplines. The utilities are:

General ADP Steelwork Detailing Hangers & Supports ADP.

2.2.6. AutoDRAFT application

This application is the Draft two-way interface to AutoCAD. (It is not included in the tutorial exercise in this manual.) It is possible to transfer a Draft drawing directly across to AutoCAD, where some users prefer to perform final annotation before drawing issue. The transferred drawing maintains the exact style and representation as set from Draft. The user can develop symbol libraries and drawing frames in AutoCAD and import these directly for use in Draft prior to returning the drawing from AutoCAD into Draft.

2.2.7. Administration

This Guide only deals with the Draft User Applications. If you have administration rights within Draft, you will be able to use the Administration applications. For more information see the VANTAGE PDMS Draft Administrator Application User Guide. A brief summary of the Administration facilities follows. The Draft administrator uses the administration application to customise Draft, by setting default attributes and creating libraries of drawing frames, symbols and labels. The Administrator can set default representation rules, labelling rules, naming conventions, line styles and hatching patterns. Template drawings, which contain predefined drawing data, can be set up, thus reducing drawing creation time.

Symbology

The Draft administrator can generate suites of symbols to be used in both 2D annotation and as part of a symbolic label definition. The symbols are built up from standard 2D annotation elements and can be created by grouping the existing 2D annotations. The library approach to symbol definition maximises drawing consistency, whilst minimising the required storage space for the symbol itself.


3. Getting Started

This chapter describes:

how to use the mouse and elements of the windows, menus and forms from the PDMS graphical user interface.

how to log in to PDMS. how to use on-line help. how to display an existing drawing.

3.1. Basic information

This section is intended for readers who are unfamiliar with computer practices. It provides information on the use of the mouse and describes the elements that regularly appear in the windows of the graphical user interface.

3.1.1. Using the mouse

You use the mouse to steer the graphics pointer around the screen. The appearance of the pointer changes according to the type of display item that is underneath it. There are three buttons on the mouse. These perform different tasks depending on the type of window, and the position occupied by the pointer within the window.


Getting Started

The left-hand mouse button has these functions:

On a graphical view, clicking the left-hand button with the pointer over a Design element in a Drawing results in that element being selected in the Design Explorer see section 3.6.1. Clicking on a Draft element (for example a Dimension or a Label) results in that element being selected in the Draft Explorer see section 3.5.2. In a sequence of menus, dragging with the left-hand button activates the command represented by the highlighted menu option when the button is released.

On a form, the effect varies according to the selected item.

The middle mouse button or wheel is used primarily to manipulate the graphical view contents.

The right-hand button is used to access pop-up menu options specific to the graphical view window.

3.1.2. Using menus

Menu options in pull-down or shortcut menus (the menu revealed by pressing and holding down the right-hand mouse button) can be in any of three formats:

Standalone options initiate an action immediately.

Options followed by three dots display a form requiring further input from the user in order to complete the action.

Options followed by a pointer, display a subsidiary menu that offers a further range of options.

Throughout this guide, related selections from menus are abbreviated using the > symbol as a separator. For example: Select Utilities>Reports>Create means:

a) Select Utilities from the bar men. b) Select Reports from the resulting pull-down menu c) Move the pointer to the right and select Create from the resultant

submenu.

3.1.3. Using forms

Forms are used both to display information and to let you enter new data. Forms typically comprise an arrangement of buttons of various types, text-boxes, and scrollable lists. Input to a form is usually by use of the mouse and keyboard.


Getting Started

While you have access to a form, you can change a setting, return to the initial values, accept and act on the current data, or cancel the form without applying any changes, according to the nature of the form. Forms can include any of the following elements, the uses of which are described in the following sections:

text boxes drop-down lists option buttons check boxes scrollable lists action buttons.

3.1.4. Using text boxes

Text boxes are the areas where you type in alphanumeric data such as names or dimensions. A text box will usually have a label to tell you what to enter. A text-box often contains a default entry (such as unset) when first displayed. Some text boxes accept only text or only numeric data, and entries with the wrong type of data are not accepted. To enter data into a text box:

Click in the box to insert the text-editing pointer (a vertical bar). Type in the required data, editing any existing entry as necessary. (You

may need to delete the existing entry first.)

You can edit the contents of the text box by moving the pointer using the arrow keys or by moving the pointer with the mouse and clicking the left mouse button. You can delete text by using the Backspace key to delete characters to the left-hand of the pointer or the Delete key for those to the right-hand. When you have finished, confirm the entry by pressing the Enter (or Return) key. A yellow background highlights any text box with an unconfirmed setting.

3.1.5. Using drop-down lists

Drop-down lists let you choose one option from a multiple selection. The list will usually have a label to tell you what you are setting and will show the current selection. They typically have the following appearance:

To change the setting, click on the down arrow or button face to reveal the full list of available options. Then pick the required option.


Getting Started

When the arrow has a bar under it, clicking on the button leads to another form, at which the required option can be selected from a scrollable list.

3.1.6. Using option buttons

Option buttons (radio buttons) are used to select one, and only one, from a group of options. The selection is mutually exclusive, so that selecting one option deselects others in that group automatically. They typically have the following appearance:

Option selected Option not selected

To change the selected option button in a group, click the required button.

3.1.7. Using check boxes

Check boxes are used to switch an option between two states, typically set and unset. Unlike option buttons, they do not interact, so that you can set any combination of check boxes at the same time. They typically have the following appearance:

Set Unset

3.1.8. Using scrollable lists

A scrollable list is displayed as a vertical list of options within the form, with vertical and horizontal scroll bars along its sides. To select an option, click on the line you want. The selected line is highlighted. Some scrollable lists let you make only a single selection, so that selecting any option deselects all others automatically. Other lists let you make multiple selections, with all selected options highlighted simultaneously. You can deselect a highlighted option in a multiple-choice list by clicking on it again (repeated clicks toggle a selection).

3.1.9. Using action buttons

Most forms include one or more action buttons. You use these to tell PDMS what to do with the details you have entered in the form. The common action buttons are:

Tells PDMS to accept the current form settings, and closes the form.


Getting Started

Tells PDMS to accept the current form settings, and closes the form.

Cancels any changes you have made to the form, and closes the form.

Tells PDMS to accept the current form settings, and leaves the form displayed for further use.

Cancels any changes you have made to the form, and leaves the form displayed for further use.

Closes the form, keeping the current settings.

Some forms contain more specific types of control button, which carry out particular command options. The action is indicated by the name of the button (such as Add or Remove).

3.1.10. Responding to alert forms

Alert forms are used to display information such as error messages, prompts and requests for confirmation of changes. You should respond by carrying out the prompted task, or by clicking on the control buttons on the form (usually an OK or Cancel button).

3.2. Logging in

This is the first step of the tutorial exercise. If you do not know where the PDMS program is stored on your system, you will have to contact your system administrator at this point.


Getting Started

Exercise begins: 1. Start PDMS by double-clicking on the PDMS icon.

The following VANTAGE PDMS Login form appears, at which you specify a number of details at the start of your session.

2. Click on the VANTAGE PDMS Login form to make it active.

Note: The following entries made at this form are specifically for the tutorial. Those required for your own project will be different.

3. Enter, or select using the dropdown list button, the name of the Project in which you want to work. For this tutorial, the project is SAM (in upper case).

4. Enter, or select using the dropdown list button, your Username. For this tutorial, it is SAMPLE (in upper case).

5. Enter your allocated Password, which is SAMPLE (in upper case). The textbox displays an asterisk for each entered letter.

6. Enter, or select using the dropdown list button, the part of the project Multiple Database (MDB) you want to work in. For this tutorial it is SAMPLE.

7. Using the dropdown list, select the name of the module you wish to use. This is Draft.

8. Make sure that you leave the Read Only box unchecked, so that you can modify the database as you work.

9. You must specify which files (Load from) to load at startup. The options are the application default settings (Macro Files) or a customised setup saved during an earlier session (Load from Binary Files). For this tutorial select Macro Files.


Getting Started

When you have entered all the necessary details, the form looks like this:

10. Click on the button.


Getting Started

3.3. The Draft startup display

When Draft has loaded, the Draft Main Display occupies the screen. The Main Display contains a number of sub-windows (more properly forms). The main display would typically appear as:

You can reposition or minimise these forms at any time by using the standard Windows management controls. Note that all the forms in the Draft Main Display (except the Drawing Window) can be set to the standard Windows Dockable, Hide, Floating or Auto Hide display modes by selecting from the shortcut menu in the title bar of the form. See the PDMS online help for more details. The features of the main window, as illustrated above, are summarised here. The tutorial exercise explains when relevant elements are selected to achieve particular objectives. For a detailed description of all elements, reference should be made to the online help.

Title Bar

This shows that the current PDMS module is Draft, and the application name, which in this case is General. The Main Display is maximised and therefore [Main Display] appears in the title bar.

Title barMain menu bar Toolbars

Draft Explorer

Design Explorer Drawing Window

My Data

Status Line

Drawing Window toolbar


Getting Started

Main Menu Bar

This displays the names of the available drop-down menus. The menu bar can be repositioned and resized as described for toolbars (see below). For reference, the online help provides details of all menu options.

The Toolbars

The toolbars provide shortcuts to various Draft functions. The toolbars will be introduced and described as the tutorial in this manual progresses. Each toolbar is also described in the Draft online help. A menu showing the available toolbars can be displayed by positioning the pointer over a toolbar and clicking the mouse right-hand button. The menu enables you to display or hide a selected toolbar.

You can reposition and resize the toolbars as required using standard Windows manipulation methods, and detailed toolbar manipulation information can be found in the online help for any Microsoft Office product. In summary: To move a toolbar, rest the pointer over the vertical dotted line at the left-hand edge of the toolbar, press and hold down the left-hand mouse button and move the toolbar as desired:

(If you only move the symbol horizontally, you are able to move the toolbar within the main toolbar.) If you resize the main Draft window to make it smaller, you will find that the toolbars will also reduce in size and a Toolbar Options symbol will appear at the right-hand end of the toolbar:


Getting Started

Left-clicking anywhere on the Toolbar Options symbol will bring up a graphical menu enabling you to select the missing icons from the toolbar. For example:

In this case the Default toolbar normally appears as:

The Main Display forms

The forms within the Main Display window will be introduced and described as the tutorial in this manual progresses. Each form is also described in the Draft online help.

Status Line

This displays prompts and other information about Draft's current operation. You should look at it frequently, especially if the system appears to be waiting for you to do something. It will always prompt you for any input or action, which is required to carry out the next step of your current activity. If the prompt lets you repeat a task an unspecified number of times, such as picking a selection of items using the pointer, you must press the Escape key when you have finished to indicate that you are ready to move to the next operation.

Drawing Window

The above illustration shows the Main Display window in restored size. Drawings produced by Draft are displayed in this window. It has a pop-up menu, activated by the mouse right-hand button.

Drawing Window toolbar

This contains buttons that are used when modifying and creating drawings. From top to bottom, they are Reset Limits, Modify Mode, Snap to Grid, Display Grid and Restore View 1, 2, 3, and 4.


Getting Started

3.4. Using on-line help

Most bar menus end with a Help option. Where available, on-line help gives detailed instructions on the use of the forms and menus in each application. You are advised to make full use of the on-line help facilities whenever you want clarification of any operations, during the later steps of the exercise. The Help option gives you the following choices from its submenu:

Help>Contents

This displays the Help tri-pane window with the Contents tab at the front so that you can find the required topic from the hierarchical contents list.

Help>Index

This displays the Help tri-pane window with the Index tab at the front so that you can find all topics relevant to a selected keyword.

Help>Search

This displays the Help tri-pane window with the Search tab at the front so that you can enter a word or words to search for.

Help>About

This displays information about the version of PDMS that you are using. More Info... lists the version numbers of the libraries being used by the displayed version of PDMS. Pressing the F1 key at any time will display the help topic for the currently active window.

Exercise continues: 11. Experiment with each of the Help options until you understand the

search and navigation facilities for finding specific items of information. Use the F1 button to read the help texts for any forms, which you can currently see on your screen.

12. When you are ready to continue, close any forms that you have been experimenting with as follows:

If a form has a Dismiss button, click this button. If a form has its own menu bar, select Control>Close from that

menu. Close any Help windows, which are displayed by double clicking

in the control box in the top left-hand corner of each window.


Getting Started

Do not close the Main Display window, because you will use it in the next part of the exercise.

3.5. Loading an existing drawing sheet

We need to load an existing drawing sheet from the Sample project, so that the exercise can continue with practising the use of the mouse. Before we load the sheet, the following short explanation of how elements are stored in the Draft database hierarchy, will be helpful.

3.5.1. The Draft database hierarchy

WORLD

DEPT DEPT

The Draft database is a tree structure, which for reference purposes is illustrated in Appendix A. The above hierarchy shows the part of the tree that is relevant to displaying drawings and sheets. The World is the top element. The next level down in the structure is a Department. The World can own several Departments, which are known as its Members, and the World is known as the Owner of the Departments.

SHEE

REGI REGI

DRWG DRWG

SHEE


Getting Started

Departments can own Registries, which can own Drawings, which can own Sheets. Later we will discuss the members of Sheets, but knowledge the above hierarchy is sufficient for the purpose of displaying a sheet. You can view the elements of the hierarchy in the Draft Explorer, but you cannot display them graphically. For more details of these elements, see the VANTAGE PDMS Draft User Guide, Part 1.

Exercise continues:

3.5.2. The Draft Explorer

13. At the top-left of the Main Display you will see the Draft Explorer form. Click the + sign to the left of the World icon:

Clicking the + sign shows the elements under the World which, in the Sample project, as supplied, looks like this:

14. When you look at the Draft Explorer you will see that the first (top) element is the WORL (world) element. The World is shown in the Draft Explorer as * and cannot be either created or deleted. The World signifies owns all members displayed below it. Note the Filter tool. This enables the list of items to be filtered according to whether the user is a General User or an Administrator. The Administrator will be able to see more than a general user, but display of the DEPT (Department) and REGI (Registry) administrative elements will be skipped, only the contents of (Drawings or Libraries) of these elements will be displayed.


Getting Started

15. Select the Filter check box, then select General User or Administrator

from the adjacent list to see the effects of using this tool. 16. The Department named Stabilizer_Drawings contains drawings of

the Stabilizer model supplied as part of the sample project. We will use these shortly. There are three other Departments supplied with the product:

ADP-DEPT for Automatic Drawing Production sheets Project_Libraries contains sample sheets. Master_Libraries containing standard backing sheets, symbol

libraries etc.

PDMS has a serialisation feature, which means it will remember the state of the Main Display when you leave Draft and re-enter it, so you dont have to remember how the display looked and recreate it.

3.5.3. Displaying the sheet

17. In the Draft Explorer, select the DEPT Stabilizer_Drawings by clicking on the + sign next to it with the left-hand mouse button. The hierarchy, shown in the Explorer, will then be expanded to show the REGIs owned by the DEPT. Continue to work down the tree by selecting the following elements: REGI Stabilizer_EquipDetails, DRWG STAB50001, SHEE STAB50001/S1.

Note that the element selected in the Explorer is known as the Current Element, that is, the element on which you want to carry out the next operation.

18. At this point close the My Data form (if present; we will have no use for it in this exercise) by clicking the button at top right. The Drawing Window on the right will grow larger accordingly.

19. Display the Working Sheet toolbar, if it is not already displayed, and then display the STAB50001/S1 Drawing Sheet in the Drawing Display window by clicking on the button on the toolbar:

20. The Name of the sheet will be displayed in the Working Sheet toolbar list next to the button (you may need to resize the toolbar to see this)


Getting Started

and the currently selected Layer will appear in the Layers toolbar. The sheet will be displayed in the Drawing Display.

A large selection of Layers (selectable from the Layers toolbar list or the Draft Explorer) exist below the Sheet (below View level), ready for when you come to create Dimensions, Labels or 2D primitive annotation. (See later in this tutorial.) This Sheet shows Equipment D1201, and the display is like this:

3.6. Using the mouse and keyboard to manipulate the view of the sheet

3.6.1. Mouse buttons

Left-hand button

As previously mentioned, clicking the left-hand button with the pointer over an element makes the element the Current Element.


Getting Started

The element may be a Design element (part of the engineering item displayed) or a Draft element (for example, the outline of the drawing sheet, a label, or a dimension). If a Draft element is clicked, the Draft Explorer changes appropriately, for example:

(The highlighted element shows that a radial dimension has been selected.)


Getting Started

Similarly, if a Design element is clicked, the Design Explorer display will change:

(showing that a Cylinder primitive within Equipment /D1201 has been selected.)


Getting Started

Middle button

The middle button allows you to increase and decrease the scale of the displayed view, as follows:

Windowing in. Position the pointer at one corner of the imaginary rectangle enclosing the part of the sheet that you want to fill the Drawing display. Hold down the middle button and move the pointer to the diagonally opposite corner of the rectangle. A 'rubber band' rectangle, enclosing the area, will be displayed. When you release the mouse button, the chosen area will fill the display area.

Zooming in. Position the pointer at the point you want to become the centre of the view. Hold down the (shift) key and repeatedly click the middle button, as required. After each click, the display zooms in by a factor of 1.5, centred on the current pointer position.

Zooming out. Position the pointer at the point you want to become the centre of view. Repeatedly click the middle button, as required. After each click, the display zooms out by a factor of 1.5, centred on the current pointer position.

If your mouse has a wheel, then rotating the wheel away from you will zoom in, towards you will zoom out.

Right-hand button

Clicking the right-hand button, when the pointer is in the main display, activates a shortcut menu. At this stage, the only option that you should use is Reset Limits. The effect of this is to zoom out until the full extent of the Sheet is displayed.

3.6.2. Zooming and panning

Zooming

We have just discussed Windowing in, Zooming in and Zooming out using the mouse middle button or wheel. Here are some additional features:

The Pg Up key can be used for zooming in. The Pg Dn key can be used for zooming out. Holding down the Ctrl key while zooming in or zooming out using the

middle mouse button, doubles the zoom factor. The numeric keypad odd-numbered keys can be used for zooming (see

the diagram below).

Panning

Panning (moving the displayed area across the overall drawing) can be achieved by the following methods, once you have zoomed in.

Use the mouse pointer to drag the Drawing display slider controls. Use the up/down, left/right arrow keyboard (see diagram below). As

required, hold down the Ctrl key to increase the step size by a factor of


Getting Started

10. Or, as required, hold down the (shift) key to decrease the step size by a factor of 10.

Use the numeric keypad even-numbered keys, as shown below:

Arrow keys pan in directions shown

Numeric Keypad keys 2, 4, 6, 8 pan in directions shown by half view width.

Keys 7 and 9 zoom in

Keys 1 and 3 zoom out

7 8 9

4 5 6

1 2 3Out

InIn

Out

Method Applicable to Windows 2000: After you have zoomed in on the display, the first click on the mouse middle button causes a panning symbol to appear in the position occupied by the pointer. If you then move the mouse to draw the pointer away from the panning symbol, the displayed area moves across the drawing in the direction of the pointer and at a speed proportional to the distance of the pointer from the panning symbol.

Panning Symbol PointerPanning Symbol Pointer

Exercise continues: Now you can familiarise yourself with some of Drafts viewing controls. 21. Experiment by using the mouse, as described above.

22. Switch on the Display Grid, by clicking on the Display Grid button. This is on the toolbar at the side of the Drawing display window.

Note: Elements of a drawing can be positioned at grid points, by clicking on the SNAP to grid button ( ). This feature will be discussed later in the course.

23. When you are ready to continue, close any forms that you have been experimenting with.

24. Close any Help windows that are displayed, by clicking in the control box in the top left-hand corner of each window.


Getting Started

25. Do not close the Main Display window, because you will use it in the

next parts of the exercise.


4. Setting up the Hierarchy to Create a Drawing Sheet

This Chapter describes how to create a drawing sheet belonging to a new branch of the Draft hierarchy. We discussed this hierarchy in Chapter 3 and it is illustrated in Figure 3-1. There is also a method of creating a Drawing Sheet from a standard template with a single click. That is described at the end of this Chapter, but first we will describe the long way of creating a Drawing so as to familiarise you with part of the Draft database hierarchy and some Draft concepts. An administrative element can be created only at one level lower than an existing element, which will then own it. Consequently, as we are going to create a drawing in a new branch of the hierarchy, we must create the upper elements of that branch, firstly a Department and then a Registry, before we create the Drawing and its Sheet.

Exercise continues:

4.1. Creating a Department

Departments can be created only under the World level.

26. From the bar menu at the top of the screen, select Create>Department (It doesnt matter where you are in the database hierarchy, Draft will automatically create the Department at the correct level.) The Create DEPT form is displayed, which you can use to name your DEPT. A default name, DEPT1, is shown in the Name text box.

27. You would normally change the name of the Department to something meaningful, but in the following form examples it is left at its default. If you want to change the name, move the pointer into the text box and


Setting up the Hierarchy to Create a Drawing Sheet

click the left mouse button. Type the name, making sure that you do not use spaces.

28. When you have finished, click OK. Note that the Cancel button closes the form without any action being carried out. When you click OK on the Create DEPT form, the Department Information form is displayed.

29. The Department Information form shows the name of the DEPT and gives you the opportunity to automatically create a Registry and/or to set up attributes of the Department.

30. To view the range of available attributes, click on the Attributes button. The Department Attributes form is then displayed.



The attributes set at this form are default properties of the Sheets that will eventually be created in the branch below the Department. The attributes are cascaded down through the Registries and Drawings, but they can be changed at any level. For this exercise, we will use the default attributes, and so just click on the Dismiss button to close the form.

31. Ensure that the Create Registry checkbox on the Department Information form is selected, as it is when the form is first displayed, then click OK. The Create REGI form will then be displayed.

4.2. Creating a Registry

32. The Create REGI form should be displayed at the end of the previous step. However, if the Create Registry checkbox on the Department Information form was off, the Create REGI form does not automatically appear. In these circumstances, it can be displayed by use of the Create>Registry option on the bar menu.

As for the equivalent form for a Department, this form allows you to change the default name. For this exercise, leave the default name as REGI1. Click OK. The Registry Information form will be displayed.



33. The Registry Information form shows the name of the Registry and

DEPT and gives you the opportunity to automatically create a drawing and/or to set up attributes of the Registry. The Create Drawing checkbox enables you to select whether or not a drawing is automatically created. If the checkbox is selected, then the method of drawing creation will depend on whether you select the Explicitly or From Template option button. The difference is explained in the next section.

The Attributes button displays the Registry Attributes form. This form is not illustrated here, as the attributes are as shown on the Department Attributes form. For this exercise, we will use the default attributes, so you do not need to access the Registry Attributes form.

34. Make sure that the Create Drawing checkbox is selected, and that the From Template option button is selected. Click OK. The Create DRWG form is then displayed.

35. Leave the drawing Name as the default DR1, and click OK. The Drawing and Sheet Templates form is displayed:



4.3. Creating Drawings and Sheets

There are two methods of creating Drawings, Explicitly or From Template. Both methods are available, regardless of whether you create the drawing by selecting Create Drawing button on the Registry Information form, or by selecting Create>Drawing at the Draft General bar menu.

From Template

If you create a drawing from a template, several other elements will be created automatically. The Drawing will own a Sheet, which will own at least one View. The View will own several Layers, which are discussed later in the exercise. There may be other elements, such as Sheet Notes, which are used to store text and primitives for the 2D Drafting. The Drawing will also own a Library. Draft makes extensive use of libraries, most of which are set up by the System Administrator. Users can only extract information from libraries; not change them. Libraries are used to store things like symbols and Drawlists (which you will use later to define the contents of a View). Libraries are accessed by the Application automatically and, therefore, you will not need to access them directly. You should not try to rename or delete Libraries or their members. The quick method of creating a Drawing, described below, uses a built-in template.

Explicitly

If you create a drawing explicitly, you will have to use the Create options on the main bar menu to create all of its member elements, such as Sheets and their Views.

Exercise continues:

36. The Drawing and Sheet Templates form enables you to select the

source of the template, the drawing size and the Sheet number of that drawing.

Note: At the top of the form, the Mode is set to Drawing Creation. If the form is used for creating a Sheet, the Mode is set to Sheet Creation, but otherwise the form is unchanged.

The Options drop-down list shows the drawing disciplines that contain the drawing template libraries, as set up by the System Administrator. For this exercise, we are going to use the drawing Sheet to show details of Equipment, so select the equipment template, which is /DRA/PRJ/TMP/EQUI.



Select the A0 option (/DRA/PRJ/TMP/EQUI/A0) from the Drawings list (this one is already selected by default). There will be a single sheet (/DRA/PRJ/TMP/EQUI/A0/S1) displayed and selected in the Sheets list. Click on OK. A Sheet having all the attributes of the template will be created, and displayed in the Drawing Window, as shown below.

We have now created the administrative elements that define the Drawing Sheet. In the next part of the exercise, we will specify which engineering items are to appear on the Sheet. To do this, we modify the View created by the template.

37. Before we continue, we will demonstrate the use of the quick way to create a Drawing Sheet. Simply click on the Create New From Default Template button on the toolbar of the same name:

A Drawing Sheet (looking just like the one we have just created) will appear in the Drawing View. Note that there has been no need to name the Sheet; it is named automatically (as /DR1/S1 if it is the first such Sheet to be created) and the hierarchy above and below it is created automatically. (You can select drawing templates other than the default; see the Draft online help for details.)


5. Views

Note PDMS 11.6 introduces a new method of populating drawing sheets using the 3D View of the design model within Draft. An example is given in Chapter 6. This chapter continues by describing the traditional method of defining and populating a View. This method is still valid, and the tutorial steps that follow are useful in introducing the fundamental concepts of View creation and population. You are advised to become familiar with these concepts before reading Chapter 6.

A View determines which Design Model items are shown on the Sheet that owns the View. Each View element defines:

the viewing parameters (looking direction, scale, etc), the size, position and orientation of the View on the Sheet, the contents of the View (the Drawlist).

If you have created a Sheet from a template, the Sheet will normally contain at least one View, depending on how the template has been set up by the System Administrator. You can modify an existing View using the Modify>View options on the main Draft General menu, or create more Views on a Sheet by using the Create>View options. You must be at Sheet level or below before you can create a View. For the purpose of the exercise we will discuss two versions of a View, namely, Limits-Defined and User-Defined.

Limits-Defined View

Limits-Defined Views are used to draw the contents of a specified volume of the model. The limits are defined in project co-ordinates, and are represented by the size of the View frame at the selected scale. The View frame can include matchlines with text showing the coordinates of the View limits.

User-Defined View

User-Defined Views are used to draw individual items or groups of items in the design model, when the volume or limits of the items are not known. The size of the frame is independent of its contents. The scale can be automatically set to fit the design elements into the available view frame area.


Views

5.1. Modifying an existing View to make it user-defined

We will now modify the attributes of the View that was automatically created as part of the template. We will define it as a User-defined View, and set up a drawlist for it.

Exercise continues: 38. For this exercise we will continue to use the Sheet previously displayed

(the one we created from scratch, not the Sheet created using the quick method). It has one View, which must be selected before it can be modified.

Note: If you fail to select a View before attempting to modify one, the system will prompt you to select an item within a View. If you have a Sheet displayed with an empty View but whose frame is displayed, then you can identify this to continue. Otherwise to exit the request, press the Escape key to return the system to normal operation.

39. Check that the hierarchy displayed in the Draft Explorer is as shown below:

If the Sheet is not already displayed, select DR1/S1 and display the Sheet by clicking on the button. (Alternatively, select Open Sheet from the shortcut menu on the Sheet.) Ensure that the View DR1/S1/V1 is selected before continuing.


Views

40. Select Modify>View>User-defined from Draft General bar menu. The User-Defined View form will appear:

5.1.1. Defining the Drawlist contents

41. The next task is to define which elements are drawn in the View. To do this we set up the Drawlist.


Views

Select Graphics>Drawlist, from the User-Defined View forms menu bar. The Drawlist Management form is then displayed.

The principles of using the form are as follows: The Drawlist Library named DR1/DRAWLIST and the highlighted Drawlist named DR1/DRAWLIST/DRWG are the defaults created automatically when the Drawing that owns the View was created. Initially, the Drawlist will be empty, as shown by the empty Drawlist Members list, on the right-hand side of the form. The Reference List Members list on the left-hand side of the form shows the elements in the Design database. You set up the Drawlist by selecting the required members in the Reference List Members list and then, using the Add and Remove buttons at the bottom-left of the form, include them in the Drawlist Members list. You can remove an element from the Drawlist Members list by highlighting it in the list and clicking on the Delete Entry button. Delete All is used when you wish to empty the Drawlist completely. The Remove button is used when you want to add all the members of an administrative element to the view, for example a Zone, and then remove selected members of the Zone. The elements name will be added to the Drawlist Members list with the word Remove after it. The actual Drawlist is the combination of the 'added' and 'removed' elements in the list.


Views

42. In the Reference List Members list, select SITE STABILIZER. This list will change to display the members of the Site. Select the ZONE EQUIP. The list will change to show the equipment elements in the Zone.

43. 44. Now add three items of equipment (D1201, E1301 and C1101) to the

Drawlist, as follows: Select D1201 and click on Add. The Equipment name will

appear in the Drawlist Members list, with the word Add after its name.

Reselect ZONE EQUIP and select and add E1301. Reselect ZONE EQUIP and select and add C1101.

45. Click Dismiss. 5.1.2. Setting the scale

The next step is to set the scale of the View.

46. Click on the drop-down list in the scale section of the User-Defined View form, and select a scale of 1/25.

5.1.3. Other options

47. Leave the other settings on the form at their defaults. For information on their functions, refer to the online help.

48. Click Apply.


Views

5.1.4. Displaying the contents of the View

49. Select Update Design in the Update Design on Apply? panel at the base of the form and click Apply. When the process is complete (it shouldnt take very long), the View should be as illustrated below.

Note: Whenever any settings on the User-Defined View form are

changed, you must select Update Design in the Update Design on Apply? panel at the base of the form and click Apply (or select Graphics>Update>Design from the main menu bar) before any change will be seen. If you dont want a black background to your drawing you can change it by selecting Colour Settings>Background Colour from the shortcut menu within the Drawing View.

50. Dismiss the User-Defined View form.


Views

51. Select Display>3D View from the main menu. You should get another view up in the application. It should look something like this:

52. Open the Design Explorer using Display>Design Explorer from the main menu. Navigate to the item marked D1201 in the ZONE EQUIP branch:


Views

53. Add this equipment item to the View by:

Left-clicking on it with the mouse in the Design Explorer and, with the button still depressed, drag it to the 3D View. Release the mouse button anywhere on the 3D View.

Right-clicking on the item in the Design Explorer and choosing the 3D View>Add option from the popup-menu.

Selecting it in the Design Explorer and clicking the Add to View icon on the 3D View Window toolbar: .

Note: You can similarly delete an item from the 3D View by selecting it and clicking the Remove from View icon, also on

the 3D View Window toolbar: .

Draft will add the equipment to the 3D View:

54. You can reflect this change in the View back into the 2D view. There are several ways of doing this.


Views

The controls shown below determine how the Views are synchronised:

If you have On Demand selected in the drop-down list, then the Views will not synchronise until you tell them to. To do this use the following icons:

Update the 3D View to reflect changes youve made to the 2d View

Update the 2D View to reflect changes youve made to the 3D View.

Pick 2D View to associate to the 3D View: This allows the current 3D View contents to be associated with a different 2D View. When using this tool you are asked to identify a 2D View to associate with the current 3D View contents. This functionality is particularly useful whenever you require different views of similar content.

You can set the Views so they automatically synchronise. To do this, select Auto-Update from the drop down list:

Selecting Background will do much the same thing, with the difference being Auto-Update happens immediately and Background happens during idle-time.

Note: Choosing Auto-Update or Background can slow your system down enormously if you are working with large drawings. Use them with care.


Views

55. Whichever method you use, when the two Views are synchronised, you

will see something like this:

56. Using the same process detailed in Steps 52 to 53 , add the Equipment Items E1301 and C1101 to the 3D model. If necessary, update your 2D View.

Note: If you add or delete items from the 2D View the change is not automatically reflected back into the 3D View. You must use the Update 3D View from 2D View icon.


Views

57. Your two Views should now look like this:


Views

5.2. Creating a Sheet and a limits-defined View

We will now create another Sheet, with a Limits-defined View.

Note You must be at Drawing level or below in the hierarchy.

58. Select Create>Sheet>Explicitly from the main menu. 59. The Create SHEE form is displayed.

Click OK. The Sheet Definition form will be displayed. This form will define a Sheet that does not contain any Views. We will create a View later.

60. A Sheet has now been created that is size A0 by default. To change this select a backing sheet /DRA/MAS/BACKS/MET/A2 from the Reference drop-down options list. When asked whether you wish to change the Sheet size, click Yes. Click Dismiss. The Sheet is displayed, but temporarily at a reduced size.

Exercise continues: 61. Select DR1/S2 in the Draft Explorer and click . The new Sheet is

displayed, filling the Drawing Window.


Views

62. Select Create>View >Limits-defined from the Main Menu. The Create VIEW form appears.

63. Click OK. The Limits-Defined View form will be displayed.


Views

64. The Limits-Defined View form is similar to the User-Defined View form.

The main differences are related to setting the limits, namely, the Limits option on the forms menu, and the Matchlines check box, which switches matchlines on and off. Also, the Scale options are slightly different.

5.2.1. Setting the contents of the View

65. Select Graphics>Drawlist from the menu at the top of the Limits-Defined View form. The Drawlist Management form will be displayed (see Section 5.1.1)

66. To create a new Drawlist, click Create on the Drawlist Management form. The Create Drawlist form is displayed. Change the name of the drawlist to DR1/DRAWLIST/LIMITS and click on OK.

67. On the Drawlist Management form, select the new Drawlist DR1/DRAWLIST/LIMITS from the Drawlists list. Add the Zone EQUIP, that is SITE STABILIZER/ZONE EQUIPMENT, to the Drawlist Members list. Dismiss the form.

68. By default, all new Sheets and Views reference the Drawlist cascaded from the Drawing. Therefore, we now need to make the Limits-defined View refer to the new drawlist containing the EQUIP Zone.

69. On the Limits-Defined View form, select Graphics>Drawlist Ref at the menu at the top of the form.


Views

70. The Drawlist Reference form is displayed.

71. On the displayed Drawlist Reference form, select the Drawlist /DR1/DRAWLIST/LIMITS you have just created. Click on Apply and then on Dismiss.

72. On the Limits-Defined View form, set the Limits, which will define the area of the model drawn in the View, as follows:

From To South 2000 North 15000 West 2000 East 12000 Up 1500 Up 25000

73. At the Scale right-hand drop-down list, select 1/50. 74. Select the Matchlines checkbox. 75. Select Update Design and then click Apply, and the contents of the

view will be displayed (see illustration below). If the Matchlines overlap the Sheet frame, select Frame>Position>Cursor>Top Right from the


Views

menu at the top of the Limits-Defined View form, and click on the Sheet where you want to reposition the top right corner of the view to fit in the available space.

76. Dismiss the Limits-Defined View form. Your drawing should look like this:


6. Using the 3D View

We saw in Steps 51 to 57 that the 3D View Window in Draft allows you to assemble and manipulate Design elements to populate drawing Sheets. This allows you to examine the content of the drawings in 3D view, before establishing the view content as a 2D drawing. However, the 3D View window offers many more extremely powerful facilities to enable you to manipulate your 2D drawings.

Exercise continues: 77. In the Draft Explorer select the User Defined sheet you populated in

Steps Steps 51 to 57. If youve been following the tutorial steps faithfully this will be here:

78. Select Open Sheet from the shortcut menu on the sheet selection to display the sheet in the 2D view, then select Display>3D View from the main menu (or select 3D View from the shortcut menu in the 2D View). The 3D View window appears, displaying the item you selected. For example:


Using the 3D View

The Display controls allow you to display the list content, add selected components to the 2D View Content list (see below), and remove all items from the list.

79. Click on the Show View Content icon, . The View Content form will appear, showing you what is in the 2D draw list. You can right click on an entry and remove it from the list:

The View Content list shows the elements which have been added to the 2D and 3D Views in Draft. If you delete an element, you can add it back again using the Design Explorer or any of the methods previously discussed.

Note: The View Content list will not be updated even if you have Auto-Update set if you have the Update 2D Viewlist button,

, unset.


Using the 3D View

80. Click the Scale icon, . You will be presented with the Scale form:

This option allows you to scale the Frame to the drawing. The Scale form allows you to:

Choose whether the scale is shown as a numeric ratio (Metric), or in Architectural or Engineering styles.

Instruct Draft to calculate a scale so that the elements in the drawlist will just fit within the View, using the Auto Scale button. The actual scale will be displayed in the Scale text box.

Alternatively, you can type a value directly into the text box on the toolbar:

Type value here

Any changes to scale are reflected immediately on the 2D display.

6.1. Manipulating the 3D View

You can manipulate the 3D View using the functionality contained in the window itself and then reflect those changes back into the 2D View. The Viewfinder (the magenta box) can be interactively resized, repositioned and rotated. Resize and Rotate changes made to the Viewfinder give equivalent changes in the 2D View. The Viewfinder is detailed in the Draft online help and an example of its use is given at section Error! Reference source not found..

6.1.1. Positioning the 3D View

You can rotate and move the view using the view manipulation buttons to the left of the display window.


Using the 3D View

Exercise continues: 81. Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to rotate the 3D View until it looks

something like this:

The Viewfinder represents the view that will be projected into the 2D View; that is, you can imagine it as a window through which you can take a 2D snapshot of the 3D design.

Viewfinder

82. Right-click on the Viewfinder and select Orientation>Free rotate from the pop-up menu.

83. Left click on the Viewfinder again and use the rotate button ( ) to rotate the View until you have it exactly how you want it. If you update the 2D View, or it updates automatically, youll see how the 2D View changes to reflect the new perspective you have on the design.


Using the 3D View

84. Right click again on the Viewfinder and select Align with 3D View. The Viewfinder will reorientate itself so it is orthogonal to you, the observer:

There are many options and functions associated with the Viewfinder. See the Online help for a comprehensive guide to what it can do and how to use it.


Using the 3D View

6.2. Selecting 3D Content

You can select elements in the 3D view in the normal way, by picking elements individually with the mouse pointer. However, the 3D View also has some extremely powerful tools for selecting both single elements as well as multiple elements.

Exercise continues: In the next few steps well cover some simple selection techniques for select multiple elements in the 3D View. 85. Hold down the Ctrl key and selecting individual elements with the left-

hand mouse button. Each of the elements you have clicked on will be selected


Using the 3D View

86. Alternatively, hold down the right-hand mouse button and dragging a selection rectangle over the elements you need to select. This activates a selection box. For example:

87. This option allows you to select multiple elements within, or partially within, the volume you define using the drag functionality. You can re-size the selection box using the handles displayed in the View.

88. When you have selected the required volume using this drag functionality, you can select from the following options:

Wholly Within: This selects only those elements that are completely contained within your defined volume.

Wholly And Partially Within: This selects any element that is completely contained within the defined volume, or has any part of its structure contained within the defined volume.

Cancel: This cancels the selection.


Using the 3D View

89. Once you have sized the selection box to the desired size, you can accept

the selection by right-clicking with the mouse and choosing the Accept Selection option from the pop-up menu. The selection will be highlighted thus:


Using the 3D View

90. Alternatively, you can choose to clip the View to the selection box by choosing Clip to Box from the pop-up menu. The effect of this is to hide from View everything not inside the box. For example, this View:


Using the 3D View

Will change to the View below:

91. Restore the View by right-clicking anywhere in the View and un-checking the Show Clipping Planes option from the popup menu.

92. Experiment for a while using the selection tools and the other controls in the View. If you find youve changed the Views to much, you can easily restore your work by doing a Display>Get Work from the main menu.


7. Labelling

There are two types of Label, General Labels (GLAB) and Symbolic Labels (SLAB). Their characteristics are as follows:

General Labels consist of text derived from the design model. These labels are discussed in this chapter.

Symbolic Labels are generated from templates (which can contain 2D primitives, including text), defined by a reference to a Symbol Template (SYTM). These labels are not described in this Guide.

The relevant part of the Draft hierarchy is simply that the Views own Layers that in turn own the labels.

7.1. Creating a General Label

Exercise continues: 93. The current working sheet must be /DR1/S1. If necessary, select it in

the Draft Explorer and select Open Sheet from the shortcut menu on the selection.

94. Select Create>Label >General/Symbolic from the main menu bar. The Labels form is displayed.


Labelling

95. Select the General Labels tab.

Note that Draft automatically selects the Label layer in anticipation that you are going to create Labels. The Label layer, along with Drawing layers for dimensions, notes and tags are created automatically as members of a View. The Label layer is also selected in the Layers toolbar and in the History toolbar.

Layers toolbar

History toolbar

The Layers toolbar simply shows the Drawing Layer you are currently working on. The History toolbar displays a history of the current elements that you have selected (use the left/right arrows to select recently accessed elements).

96. The Attach to drop-down list on the General Labels tab allows you to select the element type that you wish to label. The list has two parts: the top part displays a list of MENUS for different types of elements and the bottom part displays a list of Common Elements.


Labelling

97. Select Equipments from the Common Elements part of the drop-down list. This ensures that when you use the pointer to identify the element to be labelled it will find an item of Equipment, rather than, for example, a Nozzle, which may be the actual element under the pointer.

98. Click Create NEW to begin to create a new Label. The Label layer is now selected in Draft Explorer.

You will be prompted (in the main window status area) to identify the Design elements to be labelled.

99. Identify each item of equipment, by clicking on it in the Drawing display or the 3D View. As you click on an item of equipment, a label containing the name of the equipment will be created at the origin of the equipment and will appear in the 2D View only.

100. When you have labelled each item of Equipment, press Esc (Escape) to return to normal operation.


Labelling

101. The Labels will appear in the Drawing Window at the origins of the

Equipment you have selected, although you will probably have to zoom in (see section 3.6.1) to see them:

102. The contents of the label are set by default to be the Name of the labelled element. You can change the contents by selecting Text Contents from the Attributes drop-down list on the General Labels tab of the Labels form. The Modify Text form is then displayed.


Labelling

The textbox on the form shows the content of the label. This can be normal text directly entered and which appears in the label, or Intelligent Text for which the information in the label is automatically taken from the Design database. The default #NAME entry is an example of Intelligent Text. It is one of many different attributes, which are listed in the Intelligent Text form, which is displayed when you select Intelligent Texts on the Modify Text form. The intelligent text can be selected and copied (using Control + C and Control + V) into the Modify Text form.

103. When you have finished, Dismiss the Modify Text and Labels form.

7.2. Modify Mode

Modify mode is used to modify Dimensions, Labels and 2D Geometry by graphical interaction. There are many other non-geometrical modifications, such as changing the appearance of the text and linestyles that can only be carried out using the main menu Modify option. These are not discussed in this exercise. Refer to the online help for more information.

7.2.1. Entering and Exiting Modify Mode

To enter Modify mode, you click on the Drawing Display Window toolbar. Draft will exit from Modify mode when you:

click on the Modify Mode button again, load a new Sheet or Library, update the design, model, picture or annotation.

While you are in Modify mode, you can still control the view by zooming and panning, as normal.

7.2.2. Item Selection and Display Details

The item (in this case a label) for modification is selected by left-clicking on it. It is then displayed in the current highlight colour. You can then modify the item you have selected, or select another item for modification.


Labelling

When you select the label, several hotspots are displayed. Initially the Attachment and Connection point hotspots for the leader line (if leader lines have been selected for the label) are on a single point, adjacent to the label. The display is like this:

Rotationhotspot

Attachmentand

Connectionhotspots

Label outline

One of two arrows pointing to hotspots

Rotationhotspot

Attachmentand

Connectionhotspots

Label outline

One of two arrows pointing to hotspots

The arrangement of the hotspots becomes apparent when the label is moved from its initial position. The following illustration shows the label moved upwards and to the right:

Rotationhotspot

Label outline

Attachm

Documents

Drawing Production.pdf