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Tutorial 2 - Infrastructure of progeCAD

 

Paper Space and Model Space

 

    When you start a drawing session, your initial working area is called model space. Model space is an area in which you create two-dimensional and three-dimensional entities based on either the World Coordinate System (WCS) or a user coordinate system (UCS). Your view of this area is a single viewport that fills the screen. You can add viewports, each showing the same or different two-dimensional or three-dimensional views, all of which are displayed in a tiled manner. You can work in only one of these viewports at a time, and you can print only the current viewport. progeCAD provides an additional workspace, called paper space.

    Paper space represents the paper layout of your drawing. In this working area, you can create and arrange different views of your drawing similar to the way you arrange detail drawings or orthogonal views on a sheet of paper. You can also add annotations, create a border, and create a title block. The paper space views that you create are floating rather than tiled. In paper space, you can place the viewports anywhere on the screen; their edges can be touching or not; and you can print them all at the same time. You do not need to use paper space to print your drawing, but it offers several advantages.       After you switch from model space to paper space and arrange different views of your drawing, each view is created as a floating viewport, and each viewport is treated as a separate entity that you can move, copy, or delete. In paper space, you cannot modify the individual entities within the viewport, and zooming or panning the drawing affects the entire drawing. To edit the entities rather than the layout, you can switch to a third workspace, called model space with floating viewports. In this workspace, each viewport functions as a window into your model space drawing. You can click any floating viewport to make it the current viewport, and then add or modify entities in that viewport. Any changes you make in one viewport are immediately visible in the other viewports. Zooming or panning in the current viewport affects only that viewport.

 

Notes:

Viewports - In the next section we refer to viewports. A viewport divides the drawing display into multiple tiled windows, each of which can contain a different view of the current drawing.

 

 

Start new AutoCAD drawing progeCAD template pnew

 

Object Properties

 

    Every CAD object, such as a line or a circle has properties. Properties like Colour, Linetype and Layer can be found in all objects. There are also some properties that are only used for certain objects. Text, for example, is the only object type which has a Text Style property. The easiest way to control object properties is to use the Object Properties toolbar, below. This is a default toolbar and can usually be found directly below the Standard toolbar in the top left hand corner of the progeCAD window. It is important that you understand how to use object properties for it can make all the difference between a good CAD drawing and a terrible one.

 

AutoCAD layer function toolbar clone in progeCAD

 

Layers


  Probably the most important object property to understand well is the layer property. Experienced CAD users use layers all the time and that is why the Object Properties toolbar contains so many layer functions. Good use of layers is the most important aspect of good drawing practice.
The concept of layers is very important in IntelliCAD and the correct use of layers can make your drawing much easier to work with. Basically, layers are the computer equivalent of tracing overlays on a drawing board. However, layers are much more powerful because you can have many layers in a single drawing and you can control the visibility, colour and linetype of layers independently. This makes working with very complicated drawings much more efficient.

 

AutoCAD layers managed in progeCAD Professional DWG IntelliCAD

 

    Layers are effectively a way of ordering your drawing. For example, you may need to create a number of construction lines in a drawing which will not form a part of the finished image. You could create a layer called "Construction" and use this for your construction lines. When the drawing is complete, you could simply turn this layer off so that it can't be seen. The beauty is that you could always turn this layer back on at some future time if modifications to the drawing are required. Experienced CAD users will use layers to order their drawings by drawing components. As you can see from the example above, if you were creating the  floor plan of a house, you may have layers called "Doors", "Windows", "Interior" etc. The main reason for this, apart from it being a simple way to control the drawing, is that the different drawing components may need to be printed in different colours, with different linetypes and with different line widths. Layers can be used to control the way objects are displayed on the computer monitor and how they appear when they are printed.
    Although you can have many layers in a drawing, you can only draw on one layer at a time. The layer you are drawing on is said to be the current layer. The Object Properties toolbar displays the current layer information. In the illustration above, you can see that layer "0" is the current layer and that both the colour and linetype are set "ByLayer".
    When you start a new drawing, progeCAD has only one layer. This layer is special and is called layer '0'. Layer 0 is special because you cannot change its name or delete it and it has certain properties which we do not need to consider just now. By default layer 0 is assigned the colour white (colour number 7) and the "Continuous" linetype. Layer 0 is always the current layer when you start a new drawing, however, it is bad drawing practice to use layer 0 for normal drawing. The first thing you should do, therefore, when you start a new IntelliCAD drawing is to create some new layers.

 

progeCAD explorer for layer color blocks attributes and more


 

Colours


    In the same way that you can set a current layer, you can set a current colour so that every object you draw will be displayed in a particular colour irrespective of which layer it is on. As mentioned earlier, this method of assigning colour, by object, is recommended only in special circumstances. In general, colour should be assigned ByLayer.

 

how select AutoCAD standard colour in progeCAD or true color pallete
 

Linetype

 

    As with layers and colours, a current linetype can be set so that all objects drawn will be displayed with that linetype. However, the same warnings given above about assigning colour by object also apply to assigning linetypes by object, namely that linetypes should be set ByLayer wherever possible. That said, to set a current linetype, click on the "Linetype" dropdown box on the Object Properties toolbar, and select a linetype from the drop-down list.

 

How select and manage AutoCAD linetypes using progeCAD explorer drafting

 

    The list contains the two logical linetypes, ByLayer and ByBlock, these have the same function as the two logical colours of the same name and a list of the currently loaded linetypes. You can also look at and modify the linetype in ProgeCAD explorer under Elements. This allows you to work with all the linetypes relating to the currently open drawing.

 

Manage AutoCAD DWG line types easy using progeCAD Linetype explorer DWG

Aliases

    progeCAD offers aliases for many commands. You can use aliases to issue frequently used commands by entering one or two letters rather than the entire command name. You can change the alias to whatever will help you to work more efficiently.

To display the Customize dialog box, use one of the following methods:

  • Choose Tools > Customize.
  • Type customize and then press Enter

See the table below for the default progeCAD command aliases.

ALIAS COMMAND ALIAS COMMAD ALIAS COMMAND ALIAS COMMAND
3A 3DARRAY DDUCSP SETUCS LT EXPLTYPES SC SCALE
3DFACE FACE DDVIEW EXPVIEWS -LT LINETYPE SCR SCRIPT
3DMESH MESH DDVPOINT VIEWCTL LTS LTSCALE SE DDSELECT
3F FACE DED DIMEDIT M MOVE SELGRIP SELGRIPS
3P 3DPOLY DI DIST MA MATCHPROP SET SETVAR
A ARC DIM DIMENSION MAKEPREVIEW PPREVIEW SKETCH FREEHAND
AA AREA DIMALI DIMALIGNED MI MIRROR SN SNAP
AD ATTDISP DIMANG DIMANGULAR MO ENTPROP SO PLANE
AI_BOX BOX DIMBASE DIMBASELINE MS MSPACE SOLID PLANE
AI_CONE CONE DIMCONT DIMCONTINUE MSLIDE MSNAPSHOT SPL SPLINE
AI_DISH DISH DIMDIA DIMDIAMETER MT MTEXT ST FONT
AI_DOME DOME DIMED DIMEDIT MTPROP ENTPROP STYLE FONT
AI_PROPCHK ENTPROP DIMLIN DIMLINEAR MV MVIEW T MTEXT
AI_PYRAMID PYRAMID DIMORD DIMORDINATE N NEW -T TEXT
AI_SPHERE SPHERE DIMOVER DIMOVERRIDE O PARALLEL TA TABLET
AI_TORUS TORUS DIMRAD DIMRADIUS OFFSET PARALLEL TI TIME
AI_WEDGE WEDGE DIMSTY DIMSTYLE OO UNDELETE TO TBCONFIG
AP APERTURE DIMTED DIMTEDIT OOPS UNDELETE TOL TOLERANCE
AR ARRAY DIV DIVIDE OP OPEN TOR TORUS
AT DDATTDEF DLI DIMLINEAR OPTIONS CONFIG TR TRIM
-AT ATTDEF DN DXFIN OR ORTHOGONAL TX TEXT
ATE DDATTE DO DONUT ORTHO ORTHOGONAL UC EXPUCS
-ATE ATTEDIT DOR DIMORDINATE OS SETESNAP UCP SETUCS
AX ATTEXT DOV DIMOVERRIDE -OS ESNAP UN DDUNITS
B EXPBLOCKS DRA DIMRADIUS OSNAP ESNAP -UN UNITS
-B BLOCK DS EXPLDIMSTYLES -OSNAP ESNAP V EXPVIEWS
BA BASE DST DIMSTYLE P PAN -V VIEW
BAGEL DONUT DT DTEXT -P PAN VL VPLAYER
BM BLIPMODE DV DVIEW PA PASTESPEC VP VIEWCTL
BMAKE EXPBLOCKS DX DXFOUT PE EDITPLINE -VP VIEWPOINT
BO BOUNDARY E DELETE PEDIT EDITPLINE VPOINT VIEWPOINT
BPOLY BOUNDARY ED DDEDIT PL POLYLINE VPORT VPORTS
BR BREAK EL ELLIPSE PLINE POLYLINE VS VSNAPSHOT
C CIRCLE ERASE DELETE PO POINT VSLIDE VSNAPSHOT
CH DDCHPROP EX EXTEND POL POLYGON VW VPORTS
-CH CHANGE EXP EXPORT PR CONFIG W WBLOCK
CHA CHAMFER EXPLORER EXPLAYERS PRE PPREVIEW WE WEDGE
CLOSEALL WCLOSEALL EXPSTYLE EXPFONTS PREFERENCES CONFIG WO WMFOUT
CO COPY EXPSTYLES EXPFONTS PREVIEW PPREVIEW X EXPLODE
COL SETCOLOR F FILLET PS PSPACE XA XREF
CP COPY FI FILTER PU PURGE XATTACH XREF
D SETDIM G GRID QT QTEXT XB EXPBLOCKS
DAL DIMALIGNED GR DDGRIPS R REDRAW XL INFLINE
DAN DIMANGULAR H HATCH RA REDRAWALL XLINE INFLINE
DBA DIMBASELINE I DDINSERT RCONFIG CONFIG XR EXPBLOCKS
DCE DIMCENTER ID IDPOINT RE REGEN -XR XREF
DCO DIMCONTINUE IMP IMPORT REA REGENALL Z ZOOM
DDCOLOR SETCOLOR IO INSERTOBJ REC RECTANGLE    
DDESNAP SETESNAP IS ISOPLANE RECT RECTANGLE    
DDI DIMDIAMETER L LINE RECTANG RECTANGLE    
DDIM SETDIM LA EXPLAYERS REN DDRENAME    
DDLMODES EXPLAYERS -LA LAYER -REN RENAME    
DDLTYPE EXPLTYPES LE LEADER RM DDRMODES    
DDMODIFY ENTPROP LEAD LEADER RO ROTATE    
DDNEW NEWWIZ LEN EDITLEN RTPAN PAN    
DDOSNAP SETESNAP LENGTHEN EDITLEN RTZOOM ZOOM    
DDSTYLE EXPFONTS LI LIST S STRETCH    
DDUCS EXPUCS LS LIST SA SAVE    

 

 

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