Drawing Utilities

control of drawing units on import

The control units of units when opening a AutoCAD file can be done with the DXF and DWG File Import utility.

Previously, TurboCAD did not understand the original scale of the drawing and used to assume units in English|Architectural with a strange scale. As a solution, a new option “Use plot units as drawing units” has been added to the dwg/dxf import setup dialog.

File > Open > Set ‘Files of Type’ to DXF > Setup

Geo Location

Ribbon | Options | Drawing Styles | Geo Location

Default : Options > Geographic Location

This feature sets the geographic location in physical latitude, longitude and elevation coordinates in the current drawing.

It also displays a non-selectable marker to indicate the compass position in relation to the current geographical coordinates.

Worked Example

In this example, the geo location of the drawing is set to the latitude and longitude coordinates shown in the illustration, below.

Additionally, the Angle of the South Direction has been changed to 15 degrees to reflect the correct orientation of the layout.

The marker has been displayed in an on-screen position of Top Left, and the rosette marker is displayed as a normal size.

Marker displayed in top left

The result is shown below.

Drawing Compare

Tools | Drawing Compare

This facility flags changes between 2 drawings of the same original source where changes have been made and cannot be easily located.

Changes are mapped and are displayed either by highlighting the modifications, or by activating a ‘blink’ mode to display the modified items.

The modifications can also be zoomed to in complex drawings, while standard zoom tools allow for the zooming in and out of areas to compare.

An animated image in the form of a .gif file can be saved of the changes identified by the ‘blinking’ mode.

The drawings DC_01,DC_02, DC_03 and DC_04 can be used for this example and the bit-mapped images DC_03.bmp and DC_04.bmp can be referred to for the second exercise.

 

Worked Example

Select Tools| Drawing Compare and use the Select File 1 and Select File 2 fields shown below to locate the drawings DC_01 and DC_02.

For a 2D drawing, the Plan view angle can be selected, shown above, but for a 3D design, an isometric view angle can be selected. Click OK if differences have been detected.

Use the Zoom Out tool so that most of the drawing is visible in the viewing pane. Both drawings can be toggled between using the 1 and 2 options, shown below.

By selecting the Diff option, shown above right, the difference between the 2 drawings will be displayed in isolation in the viewing pane.

By selecting the Blink option, shown above right, the entire drawing will be displayed in the viewing pane, with the modifications shown in a slow-blink mode.

To save an animated file of the changes in the blink mode, click onto the Save tool, shown below. Click onto the File option below for a demonstration of the animated file.

In the exercise below, 2 bitmapped images of exactly the same frame size have captured the design changes of the cylinder and blade of the propeller, shown below.

When using the Diff option, the image shown below is displayed.

Drawing Underlay

Ribbon : Format | Underlay Manager

Default | Tools | Underlay Manager

This utility allows a scanned drawing or image to be used as an underlay to an existing drawing.

Drawings or images which are inserted as an underlay, if captured in a compatible format such as pdf, allow snap modes to be used so that the object can be ‘traced’ using normal line and circle geometry.

This is particularly useful for capturing design intent as the finished sketch can be modified or constrained using the normal Sketch or Modify tools. 

Objects which have been inserted as an underlay can be converted to drawing objects.

When a pdf is inserted as the underlay, the objects which form the underlay can be converted to vector-objects, depending on the integrity of the original image. After the underlay is inserted, select Tools | PDF Tools | PDF Underlay to Objects.

This utility is discussed and demonstrated in more detail in Tutorial Session 6.

Creating an Underlay

Use this sample drawing or create a similar sketch in the workspace.

From the File or Tools menu, select Underlay Manager. To create a new underlay, click onto New, then browse to the file called 06_Drawing Underlay.pdf found in the Drawings folder of your installed Training Guide, shown below.

Importing a file to use as an underlay

Inserting an Underlay

An underlay can only be inserted once it has been defined as a style, shown above.

From the Insert menu, select Underlay, then select the newly created style shown below.

Inserting the underlay into the drawing

Purge

Ribbon : File | Utilities | Purge

Default : File | Drawing Utilities | Purge

This utility purges all unused items in the current drawing, with the facility to select known unused items. This is particularly useful when using multiple underlay drawings, or drawings which have been consolidated from other sources.

Drawings can frequently reflect a high file size in relation to their content and purging the drawing of all unused or redundant content can significantly reduce the file size.

In the example below, all unused layers are selected and will be purged from the current drawing.

Purging unused layers from the current drawing

Take Note

When using Purge All, the process of removing redundant content cannot be reversed. Care should be taken when removing externally referenced files which have been inserted as Blocks, or parametric parts which are referenced from an external source.