AutoCAD 2004. One Step at a Time (Part 1)

You've already seen a couple ways to share drawing information between drawings “ templates and the Import / Export buttons on the Layer Properties Manager. Both of these work well; however, AutoCAD introduced two new and considerably more powerful tools with the 2002 release “ the AutoCAD Design Center (Figure 6.3a) and (for layers only) the Layer Translator (more on the Layer Translator in a few minutes). The first “ the AutoCAD Design Center (ADC) “ allows you to mine another drawing for useful stuff “ layers, blocks, text styles, dimension styles, etc. That is, you can dig into another drawing and find and retrieve the pieces he wants. But unlike gold mines, the mined drawing remains unaffected by the task.

Access the ADC from the command line by entering ADCenter (or ADC ). AutoCAD presents the ACD floating over the screen. You can dock or undock it as you would the Tool Palettes window (Lesson 1).

Let's take a look at the ADC.

• The title bar on the left should be familiar to you after your study of the Tool Palettes window. Its function is exactly the same.

• Four tabs appear below the toolbar: Folders , Open Drawings , History , and DC Online .

  • On the Folders tab in Figure 6.3a, you see the Tree view. That is, like Windows Explorer, you see the path to a folder on the left (here you see C:\Steps\Lesson06). The right shows the contents of the folder, a preview frame, and a description frame. You can navigate the tree view much as you do Windows Explorer.

    Figure 6.3a:

    Below the left frame, you see the path that's being shown and the number of items in the current folder.

  • The Open Drawings folder shows only those drawings that are currently open.

  • The History folder shows the last few drawings that have been opened.

  • DC Online takes you to the Design Center Online web site where you have access to blocks, block libraries, catalogs, and even some manufacturer's content.

• A toolbar resides along the top of the ADC. The function of each tool follows :

  Tool	Description
  Figure 6.3b:	Load provides a standard File Open window. With that, you can navigate to the desired folder and open the palette for the desired drawing. The palette, in this case, is simply a list of things available to you “ layers, blocks, text styles, etc.)
  Figure 6.3c:	The Back button returns you to the previous folder. The down arrow next to the Back button allows you to select from all the folders you have previously visited.
  Figure 6.3d:	The Next button works conversely to the Back button. That is, once you have returned to a previous folder, the Next button allows you to navigate back to the folder you occupied prior to using the Back button.
  Figure 6.3e:	Up is another navigation button. It changes the display to a step back (up) along the path.
  Figure 6.3f:	Search presents a dialog box similar to the Windows Find program. Using this, you can search for drawings by date modified or included text.
  Figure 6.3g:	Favorites opens the Windows Favorites folder.
  Figure 6.3h:	Home , of course, returns you to a pre-designated folder. By default, this is the C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2004\Sample\DesignCenter folder. (To reset the home location, navigate to the desired folder, right-click on it, and select Set as Home from the menu.)
  Figure 6.3i:	This is a toggle button for the Tree view (the view seen in Figure 6.3a). When depressed, your Design Center shows the folders list in a frame to the left of the window. When raised, the folders list disappears.
  Figure 6.3j:	The Preview button toggles on or off the drawing preview display just below the content area to the right of the folders list.
  Figure 6.3k:	The Description button toggles on or off the drawing description display just below the preview display.
  Figure 6.3l:	The Views button works just like the Views button in Windows “ it allows you to determine how you will see items in a folder (large icons, small icons, listed, or with details).

  Note	A useful trick to know is that, once you've navigated to a folder, you can add that folder to your Favorites list by selecting Add to Favorites on the right-click cursor menu.

Let's see just how useful the ADC can be. We'll use it to copy the layers from our flrpln drawing file to a new file.

Do This: 6.3.1 Using the AutoCAD Design Center

1. Start a new drawing from scratch.

2. Follow these steps.

   Tools	Command Sequence	Steps
   DesignCenter Button	Command: adc	1. Open the AutoCAD Design Center by typing ADCenter or ADC at the command prompt. Alternately, you can pick the DesignCenter button on the Standard toolbar.
   		2. Navigate to the C:\Steps\Lesson06 folder (just as you would using Windows Explorer), and pick on the plus sign next to the flrpln drawing. Pick on Layers as indicated in Figure 6.3.1.2a. Notice the palette shown in the right window. Since Layers has been selected in the left window, the palette shows the layers in the flrpln drawing.
   	Figure 6.3.1.2a:
   		3. We want all except all the layers except for Hidden and . Holding down the Ctrl key (to allow multiple selections), select the desired layers as indicated.
   		4. We'll use the drag-n-drop method. Click and hold down the left mouse button anywhere in the highlighted area. Drag the selection set into the drawing area, and then release the mouse button.
   		5. Check the Layer Control box to be sure the layers have been copied to the current drawing.
   		6. Close the ADC by picking on the X in the upper corner of the titlebar.

The ADC can be used as easily to copy blocks, dimstyles, text styles, or line types.

The second tool AutoCAD provides for sharing layer setups allows you to translate an existing layer or group of layers to meet a set standard. AutoCAD calls this tool the Layer Translator. The standard can be taken from an existing drawing or from a standard drawing (a drawing with a .dws extension) created to help maintain consistency throughout a project.

Let's see how the Layer Translator works.

Do This: 6.3.2 The Layer Translator

1. Begin in the flrpln drawing in the C:\Steps\Lesson06 folder.

2. Follow these steps.

   Tools	Command Sequence	Steps
   	Command: laytrans	1. Enter the LayTrans command. There are no buttons or hotkeys for this command. AutoCAD presents the Layer Translator dialog box (Figure 6.3.2.1a). Notice that AutoCAD lists the layers in the current drawing in the Translate From frame.
   	Figure 6.3.2.1a:
   		2. First, we must load a standards drawing. Pick the Load button (in the Translate To frame).
   		3. AutoCAD presents a typical Select Files dialog box. First, tell the box to look for .dws files as indicated.
   		4. Now select the ArchStd.dws file in the C:\Steps\Lesson06 folder and pick the Open button. Notice now that AutoCAD provides another list of layers “ this one in the Translate To frame (Figure 6.3.2.4a). These are our standard layers “ the ones we wish to use in our current drawing.
   	Figure 6.3.2.4a:
   		5. When we opened a standards file, AutoCAD activated the Map same button (between the frames ). This provides a fast and easy way to tell AutoCAD to accept layers in our current drawing that are already standardized (already match the layers in the standards file). Pick the Map same button now. Notice that AutoCAD details the mapped layers in the Layer Translation Mappings frame (Figure 6.3.2.5a). Notice also that the Plant layer did not translate (it remains in the Translate From frame). The Plant layer isn't a part of the standard setup.
   	Figure 6.3.2.5a:
   		6. Let's translate the Plant layer to the standard Landscaping layer. Select Plant in the Translate From frame. Select Landscaping in the Translate To frame as shown in Figure 6.3.2.6a.
   	Figure 6.3.2.6a:
   		7. Pick the Map button to translate objects on the Plant layer to objects on the Landscaping layer.
   		8. Ignore the text layer in the Translate From frame “ it doesn't need to be translated. Pick the Translate button to complete the procedure. AutoCAD will prompt you with a message that you haven't saved your settings and allow you to do so if you wish. Pick No for now.

AutoCAD has translated the layer settings in the flrpln drawing file to match those in the project drawing standards file. How simple!

Some additional things to know about the Layer Translator include:

• You can create a new layer as a target ( Translate To ) layer by picking the New button at the bottom of the Translate To frame. AutoCAD provides a simple dialog box (Figure 6.3m “ next page) to help you set up the new layer.

  Figure 6.3m:

• Use the Edit button below the Layer Translation Mappings frame to change the settings ( color , linetype, plotstyle) on a specific translation layer. Changes here won't affect the settings in the standards file.

• The Remove button (next to the Edit button) will remove a mapped layer translation. The layer that had been mapped will return to the Translate From frame for remapping.

• The Save button allows you to save the current mappings for later use.

• The Settings button in the lower left corner of the Layer Translator calls the Settings dialog box (Figure 6.3n). Here you can control exactly what happens during a layer translation.

  Figure 6.3n:

We've learned a great deal about layers “ how to create them and set up drawings to use them “ our next section looks at an example of how to use them.