Computer Aided Design

A setup wizard establishes basic drawing settings step by step.

You have two wizard options to help you set up a drawing:

• Quick Setup Wizard. Sets units of measurement, precision of displayed units, and grid limits.

• Advanced Setup Wizard. Sets units of measurement, precision of displayed units, and grid limits. Also establishes angle settings such as units of measurement style, precision, direction, and orientation.

These wizards are available in the Create New Drawing dialog box.

A drawing template file contains standard settings. Select one of the template files supplied, or create your own template files.

Drawing template files have a .dwt file extension.

When you create a new drawing based on an existing template file and make changes, the changes in the new drawing do not affect the template file. You can use one of the template files supplied with the program, or you can create your own template files.

Create a Drawing Template File

When you need to create several drawings that use the same conventions and default settings, you can save time by creating or customizing a template file instead of specifying the conventions and default settings each time you start. Conventions and settings commonly stored in template files include

• Unit type and precision

• Title blocks, borders, and logos

• Layer names

• Snap, Grid, and Ortho settings

• Grid limits

• Dimension styles

• Text styles

• Linetypes

By default, drawing template files are stored in the template folder, where they are easily accessible.

Recover the Default Drawing Template File

If the settings in the drawing template file acad.dwt or acadiso.dwt have been changed from the original defaults, you can reset them by starting a new drawing with no template and then saving the drawing as a drawing template file, replacing acad.dwt or acadiso.dwt.

If you specify the 3D Modeling workspace, the default drawing template files are acad3d.dwt and acadiso3d.dwt.

You can start a new drawing with the original defaults by using NEW to display the Select Template dialog box. To do this, click the arrow next to the Open button and then click one of the "no template" options from the list.

The objects in an inserted block can retain their original properties, can inherit properties from the layer on which they are inserted, or can inherit the properties set as current in the drawing.

Generally when you insert a block, the color, linetype, and lineweight of objects in the block retain their original settings regardless of the current settings in the drawing.

You have three choices for how the color, linetype, and lineweight properties of objects are treated when a block reference is inserted.

• Objects in the block do not inherit color, linetype, and lineweight properties from the current settings. The properties of objects in the block do not change regardless of the current settings.

• Objects in the block inherit color, linetype, and lineweight properties from the color, linetype, and lineweight assigned to the current layer only.

• Objects inherit color, linetype, and lineweight properties from the current color, linetype, and lineweight that you have set explicitly, that is, that you have set to override the color, linetype, or lineweight assigned to the current layer. If you have not explicitly set them, then these properties are inherited from the color, linetype, and lineweight assigned to the current layer.

Insert Blocks

When you insert a block, you create a block reference and specify its location, scale, and rotation.

You can specify the scale of a block reference using different X, Y, and Z values. Inserting a block creates an object called a block reference because it references a block definition stored in your current drawing.

Insert a Drawing File as a Block

When you insert an entire drawing file into another drawing, the drawing information is copied into the block table of the current drawing as a block definition. Subsequent insertions reference the block definition with different position, scale, and rotation settings.

You can enter a command by using the keyboard. Some commands also have abbreviated names called command aliases.

To enter a command by using the keyboard, type the full command name on the command line and press ENTER or SPACEBAR.

Specify Command Options

When you enter commands on the command line, you see either a set of options or a dialog box. For example, when you enter circle at the command prompt, the following prompt is displayed:

Specify center point for circle or [3P/2P/Ttr (tan, tan, radius)]:

You can specify the center point either by entering X,Ycoordinate values or by using the pointing device to click a point on the screen.

To choose a different option, enter the letters capitalized in one of the options in the brackets. You can enter uppercase or lowercase letters. For example, to choose the three-point option (3P), enter 3p.

Execute Commands

To execute commands, press SPACEBAR or ENTER, or right-click your pointing device after entering command names or responses to prompts. The instructions in Help assume this step and do not specifically instruct you to press ENTER after each entry.

Repeat and Cancel Commands

If you want to repeat a command that you have just used, press ENTER or SPACEBAR, or right-click your pointing device at the command prompt.

You also can repeat a command by entering multiple, a space, and the command name, as shown in the following example:

Command: multiple circle

To cancel a command in progress, press ESC.

You can display prompts on the command line instead of using a dialog box, or switch back again. This option is useful primarily when using scripts.

Some functions are available both on the command line and in a dialog box. In many cases, you can enter a hyphen before the command to suppress the dialog box and display prompts on the command line instead. For example, entering layer on the command line displays the Layer Properties Manager. Entering -layer on the command line displays the equivalent command line options. Suppressing the dialog box is useful for compatibility with earlier versions of GstarCAD? and for using script files. There may be slight differences between the options in the dialog box and those available on the command line.

GstarCADinterface and drawing environment can be modified in Options dialog box.

Options dialog box contains:

• Auto Save（"Open and Save"tab）

• Color（"Display"tab）

• Font（"Display"tab）

• Search Path（"File"tab）

You can create a tool by dragging objects from your drawing onto a tool palette. You can then use the new tool to create objects with the same properties as the object you dragged onto the tool palette.

Tool palettes are tabbed areas within the Tool Palettes window. The items you add to a tool palette are called tools. You can create a tool by dragging any of the following, one at a time, onto your tool palette:

• Geometric objects such as lines, circles, and polylines

• Dimensions

• Blocks

• Hatches

• Solid fills

• Gradient fills

• Raster images

• External references (xrefs)

You can then use the new tool to create objects in your drawing with the same properties as the object you dragged to the tool palette. For example, if you drag a red circle with a lineweight of .05 mm from your drawing to your tool palette, the new tool creates a red circle with a lineweight of .05 mm. If you drag a block or xref to a tool palette, the new tool inserts the block or xref with the same properties into your drawing.

When you drag a geometric object or a dimension onto a tool palette, the new tool is automatically created with an appropriate flyout. Dimension tool flyouts, for example, provide an assortment of dimension styles. Click the arrow on the right side of the tool icon on the tool palette to display the flyout. When you use a tool on a flyout, the object in the drawing has the same properties as the original tool on the tool palette.