Properties Sheet

The Properties sheet can be activated from the Inspector Bar once a drawing entity or toolbar item has been selected.

This is a context-sensitive feature that is used to change any physical characteristic of an entity, including Text, Dimensions and Hatch.

The Properties sheet is used to set the preferred method of how a tool will function. This is done by right clicking onto the icon and setting the preferred parameters.

To modify an object, double click onto the entity, then right click and select Properties from the local menu. Alternatively, use the Properties Sheet at the bottom left of the editor.

Activating the Properties Sheet

 

Selection Info Palette

Tools | Palettes | Selection Info

This Palette has multiple applications and is usually retained in the editor during all drawing sessions.

The Selection Info Palette allows information relating to a selected object or group of objects to be comprehensively displayed.

The Selection Info Palette allows the measurement, spatial or layer properties of single or multiple objects to be modified.

Such changes made in the Selection Info Palette will be updated in the selected sketch in the editor.

Using the Selection Info Palette to change the radius of the selected circle

Format Painter

Format | Arrange | Format Painter

This tool is used to harvest the properties of one object (source) and apply all or selected properties to another (destination).

The Properties of the selected object automatically appear in the Format Painter palette and the Selection Info Palette.

The Format Painter tool allow properties of an object to be harvested from an object and saved as a specific style.

 

Using the Format Painter tool tocreate a new Style

The Format Painter tool, frequently used to apply the properties of the selected (source) object onto a destination object can now be used to harvest the properties of a selected object, such as line style, hatch pattern, text etc, and save this as a specific Style.

This style will be stored in the Style Manager and can be automatically applied to subsequent objects.

In the example below, the style of the brush fill pattern, will be harvested by the Format Painter tool and stored as a unique pattern. This pattern will then be preset for subsequent use.

Worked Example

Select the Format Painter tool and left click into a pre-drawn fill pattern similar to that shown above The brush fill pattern can be any size, style or color for this example.

When the pattern is selected, right click and select Make Property Values Presetfrom the local menu.

From the Select Property (Entity) Type menu, browse to the Generic Properties option.

Input a suitable name in the Enter Unique Preset Name field. In this example, the name Mesh was used, shown below. Click OK.

Creating pre-set properties using the Format Painter tool

Applying Preset Properties harvested by the Format Painter Tool

From the Tools Palette, open the Line tool in the Sketch Menu and right click onto the Rectangle tool. In the General page, select the newly created Mesh property. Click OK.

Left click onto the Rectangle tool and draw a similar rectangle alongside the original.

New ‘Mesh’ properties applied to all newly drawn objects

As can be observed, the property values of the Mesh have been preserved and can be applied to the new drawing object, shown below by the arrow.

Styles can be removed by right clicking onto the feature for which they were created, eg: Line, Hatch or Text tools and selecting Delete.

In the example below, a specific text font, size and color was harvested and preset as a standard called ‘Label Text’, shown below. This specific text property can now be preset when required by right clicking onto the Text tool and selecting the unique preset name from the General page.

Additional Resources

The Format Painter tool now allows you to transfer Custom Properties and Property Set Definitions (PSD) from one object to another. A crucial feature for extending your BIM/IFC models.