Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Lesson 13 – Useful Drawing Tools

In Lesson 13 we will cover the use of some of the drawing tools not previously discussed.

Combine Dimension String 3

Add/Remove Dimension Point 3

Level Mark 4

Weld Symbol 5

Dimension Options 6
Save, Save as, Load 6
Straight 7
Angle type: 8
Precision: 8
Format: 8
Text color: 9

Ortho Line 10

Multi Line Text 11

Inserting Symbols 12

Creating Part Marks 13

Copy/Linking Drawing Views 14

Copy Drawing Views: 14
Link Drawing Views: 14
Copy Drawing Views with Layout: 14
Link Drawing Views with Layout: 14

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Rotate View 15

Update Marks 16

Select Filter 17

Select Switches 18

Drawing List Commands 19

Open 19
Update 19
Update marks 19
Delete 19
Display 19
Filter 20
Lock 20
Issue 21
Revision… 21

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Combine Dimension String

For use when you want to combine a group of two or more parallel dimension lines into one dimension
line.

Hold down the Ctrl key while picking the dimensions you want to combine. Click the icon (or right click
with the mouse) and select Combine dim lines.

Add/Remove Dimension Point

Use when you want to change the point at which an existing dimension originates.

Pick the dimension you wish to modify; only one dimension can be modified at a time. Click the
appropriate icon (or right click with the mouse and select either Add dimension point, or Remove
dimension point.) Add or remove the point you wish to modify.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Level Mark

The command produces an Elevation mark at a point you pick in a drawing.

Double click the Level mark icon on the drawing menu bar at the left side of the screen. This opens the
Level mark attributes dialog box. Here you can select how the level mark is to appear in the drawing.

Set the desired variables and click OK.

In the drawing, pick the point at which you want the Level mark to identify, and then pick a point at which
you want the mark to appear.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Weld Symbol

The weld symbol tool allows you to add a selected welding symbol to your drawing.

Double click on the Create weld symbol icon to open the dialog box.

Pick the type drop down menu to select the

desired weld. Fill in any other information you
would need in the symbol. The Reference text
box is used to insert a note in the tail of the weld.
When your finished click OK.

In the drawing, pick the point that you want the

weld applied and then pick the point that you
want the symbol located. The Create weld
symbol can also be used to modify an existing
weld symbol (but not welds that appear in the
model).

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Dimension Options

The dimension command creates a dimension between picked points. The snap switches control which
points can be picked.

Dimension properties can be set in the Dimension Properties dialog box. Double click on one of the

dimension icons to open the dialog box.

Save, Save as, Load

When the values for the different options have been set to your requirements Save the settings as
standard.

You might find that you need a variation to the standard settings for a particular project. Make the
changes and use Save as, with a unique name, to change the defaults.

Select a name of a saved default from the drop down menu and use Load to set the defaults.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Straight
Select a dimension style from the drop down menu.

Note: Internal dimensions are always absolute.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Angle type:
Angle type defines the type of angle measurement displayed.

Precision:
Precision controls the round off factor in the displayed dimension.

Format:
The format is how the dimension number is displayed. The number shown in the bracket is optional and
only shown when required. For example 100.0 will be plotted as 100 if the format selected is ###.[#] and
100.0 if ###.# is selected.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Text color:
The color controls the line weight in drawings.

For more information on line thicknesses read help file items Color table and Pen number under
Contents->Modeling->File->Database->Plotters->Modify… (On NT)

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Ortho Line

Ortho in combination with the line command allows you to draw a straight line in steps of 45 degrees
from a picked starting point.

To activate ortho start the line command pick a starting point and either pick the check box on the snap
settings toolbar or press the letter O key on the keyboard.

Note: For more information on using the snap settings toolbar read and do the exercises in the help file
under Drawings->Setup-> Entering/locking coordinates.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Multi Line Text

Pick Create->Text->Text [multi] from the menu pick a point to start the text. Type the text line and click
create or hit the enter key to start the next line of text. Each line is left justified, and in line with the
previous line.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Inserting Symbols

Double click the Symbol icon.

Click the Select button and select a predefined symbol.
Click Apply, OK.
Click the Symbol icon one time and pick a point in the drawing to locate the symbol.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Creating Part Marks

Part marks are controlled with the Part mark properties dialog box.

Open any assembly drawing.

Right click in the drawing background.
In the Assembly drawing properties dialog box click the Part mark… button.

In the Part mark properties dialog box you can control which parts get marked and how the marks look.
An existing mark can also be modified in the part mark dialog box.
Double click the mark

Make your changes and click the Modify button.

Note: To create a mark for a part that is not marked pick the part, right click, and select Part mark.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Copy/Linking Drawing Views

These and the related commands (Copy drawing views with layout and Link drawing views with layout.)
allow you to add views from any drawing to any other drawing.

Open the Drawing list. (Click the Drawing list icon.)

Open any drawing in the list.
Highlight any other drawing in the drawing list.
On the drawing menu (Top of the screen.) Pick Create->Copy drawing views.
The views from the copied drawing appear in the open drawing.

There are a few differences between the copy and linking commands.

Copy Drawing Views:

• Copies only the views without any layout. (Title block, Bill of Material, etc.)
• The copied views are not updated with changes that occur in the model.

Link Drawing Views:

• Like the copy command Link drawing views adds the views without the layout.
• The views are updated with any change in the model.

Copy Drawing Views with Layout:

• As the name suggests the layout comes with the views.
• Is not updated with changes in the model.

Link Drawing Views with Layout:

• This also adds the view with the layout.
• Is updated with changes to the model.

Note: The drawings that have had the drawing views with layout added, must be closed and then
reopened before the layout will be visible.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Rotate View

To rotate a view, open any drawing.

Click on the blue view border to highlight it.
Right click and select Rotate. (Or from the menu pick Edit->Rotate View…)
This opens the Rotate view dialog box.

Input a value for the Angle: and click the Rotate button.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Update Marks

When changes have been made in the model the drawings need to be updated before they can be
opened. If the drawings have not had a Freeze placed on them when they are updated the marks and
dimensions are automatically updated. If they are frozen you have to update the drawing and then open
it to update marks and manually created dimensions.

Open a drawing.
Select Edit->Update marks you then have an option to select which marks you want to update or all of
them.

You can also update all of the marks by right clicking and selecting Update marks.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Select Filter

The Setup->Select filter defines those objects that can be selected on the screen. (Either in the
Modeling environment or the Drawing environment.)

Notes:
1. The information for the Filter string must appear exactly like it is in the model. (Capitalization,
lower case, exact names, etc.)
2. An object must also be visible in the model in order to be selectable.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Select Switches

The select switches can be found in the upper left corner of the screen.

If for any reason you might want to pick only a particular type of object in a drawing, you can press the
corresponding selection switch. Then only objects of that type are selectable. The normal setting would
have the Any object button pressed.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Drawing List Commands

The following is a brief description of each of the commands in the drawing list.

Open
Highlight a drawing by picking it in the drawing list and click the Open button.

Double clicking the drawing in the list will also open it.

Update
Select any drawing, which has a “P” or an “N” in the flag column, and click the Update button to invoke
the updating required due to any changes in the model.

Update marks
Marks in drawings selected from the list can be updated with this button.

Delete
Deletes all of the selected drawings from the list including Frozen or Locked drawings.

Display
All

Displays all of the listed drawings.

Invert

Displays the inverse of a filtered group of drawings.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Filter
Selected

Filters a selected drawing or group of drawings so that they are the only ones visible in the drawing list.

Up to Date

Filters only those drawings that are up to date so that they are visible in the drawing list.

Select Parts

Highlight drawings from the drawing list and when you click Select Parts the corresponding parts in the
model become highlighted.

By Parts

Pick objects in the model and click the By Parts button and the drawing list is filtered so that only those
drawings are listed.

Lock
On

Locks selected drawings so that they cannot be modified. Updating flags can still be present.

Off

Turns off the lock so that the drawings can be modified.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Issue
On

This command places the letter “I” in the flag column for any drawings selected for issuing.

Off

This turns off the issue mark on any drawing selected that has the issue mark in the flag column.

Revision…
Opens the revision handling dialog box so that revision information can be added modified or deleted.

Mark

Used to enter the revision number for marking the drawings.

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Xsteel Training Course Lesson 13 – Drawing Environment Explanation

Revision Drop Down

The box next to the revision mark contains the number of revisions that have been made, and it is
updated automatically. Each drawing has its own unique revision numbers.

Date

The revision date is not automatic it is a text field which can be edited.

Text

The three lines of text can be used to denote the revisions that have been made.

Delete.

The Delete button deletes the selected revision listed in the Revision drop down box. After a revision
number has been deleted, the remaining revision numbers in the drop down box are renumbered. (The
revision marks are not changed.)

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