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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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