Basic Principles

Placing a Line Drawing Component

When positioning a line drawing component in the drawing area, different dimensions must be determined. The positioning is therefore done in several steps, each of which is needed to be confirmed unlike most components in the program where only one mouse click is required.

After you have selected the desired component, brought it onto the drawing area and clicked once, an input display always appears. Here you can pre-define properties and dimensions of the component, before it is placed in the drawing area.

There are three different methods to place a line-drawing component:

Alternative 1 - Work from the keyboard

If you know the exact dimensions of the components that are to be placed in the drawing, the easiest way is to type in the desired values in the input display that appears automatically as soon as you click once in the drawing area. Step by step, the input display continues to appear until all the required values for the component have been specified. Confirm each input by pressing the Tab key and confirm all values by pressing Enter or use one of the arrow keys.

Note: If you move the mouse pointer outside the drawing area before you have specified all the required values for a specific component, the component will still stay in the drawing area and adjust to the values typed in so far.

 

Alternative 2 - Place and define the component manually, using the mouse

It is not required that you type in exact values for each component. Having fetched the component and clicked once in the drawing area, you can also simply drag the mouse pointer in different directions in order to give the component approximate dimensions. Confirm each step by clicking.

 

Alternative 3 - Click and place

Select your component and click once in the drawing area. Then move the mouse pointer outside the drawing area. Although the component has not yet been defined, it has now been clicked in position on the drawing area. It has adjusted to its standard size and appearance according to the grey Line Drawing tabs. Now you can change the component afterwards by stretching and shrinking or by right-clicking on it and selecting Settings.

Note:

  • According to Alternative 3, a line drawing component stays in the drawing area, in its original size, after just one click. If, for various reasons, you would like to avoid this behavior, press the Esc key (whilst the component is still on your mouse pointer).

  • When you are stretching a line drawing component by dragging its snap point, you cannot enter values in the input display. For information on stretching a positioned component and entering exact values, see the section Stretching and shrinking positioned components below.

  • A quicker way to open the Settings dialog is  to double-click on the line drawing component.

 

Input Displays

When you move a line drawing component close to an existing object in the drawing area, an input display with different options is always shown where you enter different values. The first option - Snap to - allows you to determine which points the line drawing component should find and snap to on the existing object.

Three options five available - All, Middle, End, Center and Intersection (see Figure 1 below). You move between the different options by pressing one of the arrow keys on the keyboard. Click when you have finished. After deciding where to snap, click to position in the usual manner.

 

snap_to.gif

Figure 1

 

A new input display is shown, giving you new options (see Figure 2).

input_box.gif

Figure 2

 

This is how input displays work:

 

You confirm dimensions and choices you have entered in input displays by:

Double Lines, Arcs, Circles and Rectangles

When you use double lines, double arcs,  double circles and double rectangles, you must always choose Side or Inner side for the double line (Figure 3). The dashed line which appears shows where it is possible to position the double line. The two solid lines show where the double line would be positioned if you clicked just at that moment.

duuble_lines.gif

Figure 3

 

There are two ways of choosing Side/Inner side:

In all these cases (double lines, arcs and circles), the choice of the double line is the last choice you make before you click the component in position in the drawing area.

 

Inner and Outer Dimensions

There is a difference between the inner and outer dimension. When you are working with double lines and with the line tool Double line, make sure that your inner dimension does not become an outer dimension. The most frequent dimension you take is the inner dimension - you measure the inside of a room, not the outside.

 

Snapping

Line drawing components snap to one another. When you move a new line drawing component towards another which is already positioned on the drawing area, the new component automatically finds specific points on the positioned component. To determine which points the component should snap to, move between the different options in the Snap to field by pressing one of the arrow keys on the keyboard. Three options are available - All, Middle and End.

Guidelines:

Changing a Positioned Component

You can change line drawing components after you have positioned them in the drawing area. You do this in the dialog Settings. You open the Settings dialog by right-clicking on the component and choosing Settings from the pop-up menu which appears.

Stretching and Shrinking Positioned Components

You can stretch and shrink line drawing components after you have positioned them, just as you can with most other components in the program. In this case, however, you cannot enter an exact value.

To stretch a line and enter an exact length for the line, follow these instructions:

  1. Double-click on one of the line's snap points and move the mouse pointer slightly.

  2. Enter a new value in the input display that appears automatically.

  3. Confirm the length by clicking.