Notes on Getting Started With QC or AutoSketch



Notes on Getting Started with AutoSketch R7

March, 2000

Here's a caveat for you. I'm no expert in all AutoSketch possibilities. But I probably know a bit more than you do, or you wouldn't be reading this. But the things that I talk about I have tried out and they seem to work. If you're having any difficulties following these notes, let me know and I'll edit the document appropriately for future hapless novitiates to make it more betterer and easierer to follow. In addition, I have run this by the experts who have made suggestions, which are incorporated. - so I can blame them for any mistakes. Now print this document out.

There is a workbook available for R6 that can help you a great deal and I suggest you get this. It is Paul Jackson's book, "Hands On A House", which you can get from . He takes you through the design of a house and all the basic tools are described in a 'how to' format with exercises. Good teaching aid and I got a lot out of it. I'm still getting things from it to this day. There are some new features in R7 but this reference is all there is at present until it is updated. We can cajole him on the newsgroup and he might oblige. I'll start doing that today. You could even bug Paul yourself to get the updated version ready. In the meantime you can use this to get ready.

Second, the AutoDesk tutorial will show you how to move the cursor around a bit and use a tool or two. It's good to practice that for a bit before you get Paul's book, just so you see the basic moves.

And lastly, I'm only guessing that all these notes will apply to QuickCAD. I've been watching the posts and see that more experienced heads say AutoSketch and QuickCAD are equivalent. We'll see.

Setting Up the Screen

I would suggest that you put up some basic toolbars that will get you going. You may never need more than these showing, depending on what you're doing. Go to an empty area (at the top of the screen) and Right Click with the mouse. A short-cut menu will appear. Make sure that the top seven items are checked off. If not, check them off one-by-one, or click on "Toolbars..." at the bottom of the menu and a screen will appear that will list ALL the toolbars available. Tick off:

Standard

Status

Property

Edit

Snap

Content Librarian

All-In-One

Make sure no others are ticked off. If they are, untick them. Click OK and close the dialog box. That's enough for most of your work, I think. It does for me, anyway. There are others you may want in the future, but by that time you'll be a pro. If any of the toolbars appear in the drawing area or along the sides, get them all on the top. Grab an edge of the toolbar and just push it up there. It will arrange itself automatically. And you can change their positions up there also. Try it. Mine looks like the picture below:

Now you should set up your screen view so that it's comfortable for you. Anytime you want to change the view, go to View>Options on the Main Menu. You'll get the Appearance tab up first. My suggestions here (others may not agree, but I like them) is to UNTICK the Page box. This allows the "paper" (on the screen) to be continuous in all directions so you're always drawing on it. If you have the Intellimouse (the one with the wheel in the center) then untick the Scroll Bars box. If you don't then leave it ticked.

However, I strongly suggest you get an Intellimouse or something similar. You can get it from the various auctions on the net for about $15.

I untick the Ruler and the Show Grid boxes also. Just because they get in the way and you're tempted to use them too much. They're a pain for most work. Sometimes (rarely) you may want them and then you'll just tick them off on this tab. (If you're using R6, Go to the Visibility tab and Click EVERY ONE of those boxes. Click OK on the bottom of the screen.) Voila! A blank page. You're almost ready to go.

I like to use an off-white color because it's easier on the eyes. If you want this, then go to View>Options again. On the top right, you'll see a field with "Standard" in it and a down-arrow beside it. Click on the arrow and choose Gray, for instance. Click OK on the bottom and there it is. Pretty dark, and you may not want this.

There's another way to get an off-white screen color. Here's an option and you can try it out for fun. Go to your desktop and RIGHT click on an empty area. Choose Properties and then the Appearance tab.

You'll see a section in the middle with the words, "Windows Text" in it. Click on the screen area around it somewhere. Fields below will become active. A box at the bottom-left should say "Windows" in it. If not, then click on the down arrow and select it.

There is a field on the right that says, "Colors" above it. Click on the small arrow next to that and a small palette appears. At the bottom it says, "Other". Choose that. Now you can select ANY color you wish for the background page color in AutoSketch and all your other applications. I have chosen a light tan. Every once in a while I change it a bit so I don't get bored. Don't forget to click "Apply" at the bottom of the dialog screen. Try this out to get some familiarity with the program.

You now should have a screen that I look at. No nothing, just a drawing page.

Click Tools>DrawingOptions and click the Units tab. Choose the Length field that's appropriate for your work, maybe Inches/Fraction. Then choose the Scale tab. Set the scroll to 1"=1". That's FULL SCALE. You should draw everything this way. REMEMBER THAT! (I'm sure I'll get some flack for that, but it's what I do.) Click OK on the bottom. You'll use the Scale feature when you're ready to print the drawing.

There's a nice option in R7: You can get to the Drawing Options screen quickly by Right Clicking anywhere on the blank drawing page. It's a useful shortcut.

For these initial exercises I also suggest that you UNTICK the Enable Multisnap box. We'll discuss this item separately later.

One other thing I do. Go down to the Windows launch area at the bottom of the screen. Find an open area, Right-Click and choose Properties. On the pop-up menu, tick off the Autohide box. This will cause the launch bar to disappear when you are working. You can recover it at any time by dragging the cursor down to that area.

The screen is now completely blank, except for the toolbars at the top and the Status line at the bottom.

NOW, you're ready.

First Exercise

Draw a box first, just for fun. Make it 2" by 3". Here are two ways to do this.

1. Choose Line Single. You can do this two ways.

From the main All-In-One (AIO) menu click the Line Single tool. You may wonder where this is. The AIO menu starts with the black arrow pointing upwards to the left. The icons (tools) proceed to the right. The third tool is the Line Single tool. If you hold your cursor over each icon, there should be a call-out for what it is. You will note a small black triangle at the bottom right of SOME icons. This means there is a sub-menu or "fly-out" under that. Click on one of those icons and HOLD the click-button down. The fly-out will appear and if you drag the cursor over each icon in the sub-menu, the call-out will say what it is. You will get to know these quite quickly, so fear not. You may have noticed that in the top AIO picture above, the third icon will say Line Multiple. That seems to be the default icon. Just click and hold on it, move the cursor over to the Line Single on the fly out and release. Like the pic directly above. Now you've got it.

The other way: Every one of these tools is available from the main menu. For instance, you can find Line Single from Draw>Line>Single. Try it. What a pain! Fahgedaboudit!

2. After choosing Line Single, click (and release) anywhere on the screen. Then the line is PINNED at that point. You can drag the cursor any which way and the line will follow it. But we want to draw a rectangle that looks right on the screen. Type [H], wherever the line is. This says to the program that you're going to draw a HORIZONTAL line.

Note that the line goes flat and you're pulling a little red ball. Just click anywhere. You should have a flat line somewhere on your screen (make it in the middle for simplicity). If it is NOT highlighted in red, then left click on it so that it is (there will be two boxes or handles, one at each end, plus a yellow rotated box in the middle, but we'll get to that). Place your cursor close or on the selected line. Right Click and a pop-up menu appears. Click on AutoSelect. The menu will close. Any time a line (Entity) is highlighted in red, it is SELECTED so it can be edited. I'll use that term often.

As a note, in this new version, the line (or ENTITY) does not have to be selected to bring up this menu shown above. I mentioned that you needed to select it first. That's not strictly necessary now. I guess that's a good change.

3. Look on the Edit bar at the top somewhere. A series of fields should be white. To the left of each field is an icon. Place the cursor of each of these icons and read what it says. Here is where you can edit that line, both length and angle. Find the one that says, "Line Length". Click and hold on that field, and swipe across the number there so that it is all highlighted. Now type in 2 and type [Enter]. Any time you make a change to the fields in the Edit bar you MUST hit [Enter] or the program will not know you want to change the value. OK OK. It says 6.02" above. Don't yell, just change it.

4. The line should now be EXACTLY 2" long. It may be very small. If so, press the center wheel of the Intellimouse or find the Zoom control on the AIO. The Zoom control is right next to the Black Arrow. Click on it; place it over the line and click. That's one way. Another is to find the magnification percentage on the Standard Toolbar. You will see it next to the question mark. It will have a value and a "%" after it. You can drag-swipe that number and put in whatever you want. Just so you can see the line comfortably. Now maybe you see why you should get that Intellimouse thingy. All you have to do with that is to roll the wheel one way or the other and the magnification changes. CAD life is not worth living without the Intellimouse.

5. Select Line Single again (if your cursor is ALREADY a cross, it is already selected) and type [E] for end point. Look at the Status bar at the bottom of the screen. It says, "Enter start point". That's what the program is expecting you to do. There's an E and a U by the cursor, which will be a small circle. That stands for Endpoint and Unlocked. But we want it locked. So type [V] for vertical. Approach one end of the line and a little red square pops to the end. Like the pic at the right. Click there. That sets the start point. Now type [S] so you can draw the line and drag the cursor vertically a bit. Then click again. Now you have a line EXACTLY at the end of the first one and vertical, to boot. Go to the Edit bar and change the length to 3" (Don't forget to type [Enter]). Two side done.

6. Do the third side by yourself. For the last side you don't have to deal with the Edit bar. Make sure the cursor has that E next to it and snap the line to both ends. VOILA! A rectangle, exactly 2"x3". At the end, TYPE [S] for Snap OFF. You won't be able to do anything else if that E is showing when you don't want it to.

That was the HARD way. Here's the easy way:

1. Go to the AIO and find the Rectangle tool. It's the 7th icon from the left. If it doesn't show, then click-and-hold on that icon and find it under the fly out sub menu.

2. Start the rectangle by clicking ONCE anywhere. Drag the cursor and the rectangle begins to appear. DON'T click yet. Instead, type [R]. A 2D Coordinates dialog box appears with EVEN MORE icons. See what they are. Find the one that says Relative and XY coordinates. Click it, but it should be already. The two fields are for entering the lengths of the rectangle sides. The X field should be highlighted. If not, then do it. Type 2. Toggle down to the Y field with the Tab key and type 3. Hit or Click [Enter], or click OK. Choose a snap at the bottom to close, like S. There it is.

Let's talk a minute about the Multisnap. There's even more about this later. This is a way to keep any number of the snaps active simultaneously, and also draw entities without releasing those snaps. It can be quite convenient, once you get used to it. Go back to the initial exercise. Right Click on the drawing page, choose Drawing Options, and tick the Enable Multisnap box on the upper right side. Also tick the End snap box. Untick all the others. Repeat the above exercise. You'll find that you don't have to release the snap to draw successive lines. That's one of its features. More on this later. For now, just untick Multisnap and proceed. You can play later.

Now for some fun. Click on the Offset tool. That's the tiny triangle on the AIO tool bar. Note what the Edit bar says. Now move the cursor (a little circle) to the outside of the rectangle. Now move it to the inside. The rectangle is being offset by the amount in that Edit bar. You can change that to anything you wish. When you click again the offset rectangle will be in place.

Select the Circle, the one that says, "Center, Side Circle". Type [C] for center. Move to the last rectangle you drew until the little red ball snaps to the center. Click ONCE. Now type [S] for snap OFF. You can now drag the circle to inset it. But wait! We want the circle to be exactly inscribed in the rectangle. So type [M] for midpoint. Now pull the circle toward the side of the rectangle until it touches one midpoint. Click NOW! There it is. An inscribed circle. Exact.

You may find that this doesn't really work the way I said. That's because you have the Multisnap still engaged you foolish person. Like I said before, untick the Enable Multisnap box and it will work. Don't yell at ME about this. It's called a program idiosyncrasy. Just something to get used to.

Selecting

Now you should understand what this Selecting is all about and why/how/where/when to use it. After you have drawn an object, you will often want to alter it in some way. To do this you must tell the program what object you want to alter. So you move the cursor CLOSE to the object and Left-Click once. That Selects the object with a box.

Here's what to try:

1. Type S to make sure the Snap is OFF. You'll do this often so get used to it. You'll see why, if you don't. (You don't need to do this if Multisnap is enabled. But I'll shut up about that now.) Draw a rectangle somewhere on the page, any size you want. Use the Rectangle tool and just drag it out. Right-Click to "clear the tool".

2. Select it by Left-Clicking once next to the rectangle. It should look like the drawing on the right. You've told the program you want to manipulate that particular object. Note those eight handles: four squares and four triangles. Left-Click and HOLD it on one of the corner handles. Drag it away or in. Note the rectangle change. Stop now, that's enough.

3. Now move the cursor to the Center where there is a yellow box with a line attached that has a blue triangle on the end. The yellow box is called the About Point. This is the visual point about which the object is geometrically CENTERED. About Point is aptly named, no? (The blue triangle is the ROTATION handle.)

4. At the About Point the cursor disappears leaving the cross. You're there. Right Click and the pop-up menu has a series of choices, one of which is Move About Point. Click on that and the handles will disappear, leaving a small cross for the cursor. Note the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen. The program is waiting for you to select a new "reference point". In other words, you're going to change the OPERATING center, and disregard the visual geometric center.

5. Type E for EndPoint; move to one corner until the red box pops there, and Left Click. Now the "center" is at that corner with a line leading off to that little blue triangle, the Rotation Handle. Why do this? Here's a reason.

6. Suppose you want to rotate the rectangle around that particular AboutPoint. Type S for Snap OFF, move the cursor to the Rotation Handle, Left Click and HOLD it. Hold down the Shift key and drag the rectangle around the AboutPoint. It will rotate around that point; the Edit bar shows the angles you're rotating through. Practice that a bit to get the feel and understand what the bits are doing. But suppose you only want to rotate the rectangle EXACTLY 25.5 degrees? Try this.

7. On the main menu, choose Tools>DrawingOptions>Drawing tab. The top field on the left is Plus/Minus Rotation with 45 in it. Swipe across that field and enter 25.5, Click OK or hit Enter. Now rotate the rectangle WITHOUT holding the Shift key. Pop! It moves in increments of 25.5 degrees, like the drawing at the left.

[A short note about changing variables in the program. There are only three menu choices (with various screens and tabs under them) that can be accessed. To change your view of things, use View>Options. To change a drawing parameter use Tools>DrawingOptions. To change a graphic parameter use Tools>GraphicOptions. Sometimes you won't really know which to choose, so look in those places at the various tabs that make sense, and you'll find what you want. Sometimes you'll want to make a global change (like a Printer setup) which may require that you use a Windows function, but that you can discuss on the newsgroup if you want.] Now back to Selecting.

Recover the original rectangle (use Undo from the main menu, the little curved arrows - one to the right, one to the left) or draw a new one. Select it again. Move the cursor inside the box, NOT the AboutPoint area, and Right Click. Jeez, ANOTHER menu! Look at the picture on the left.

There are many interesting choices to be made here. A number are self-evident, a few are not. Choose the Rubber Stamp (LeftClick) and move the rectangle around. If you Left Click again it will be placed there. Not now, though. Instead, Right Click to clear the tool. Bring up that menu again and choose (Left Click) Explode.

Explode is an interesting function. You'll use it often. It returns a grouped series of entities to their basic bits. If you chose the Rectangle tool to draw the entity, it will be comprised of four single line bits, all joined, so that when you click on it, the ENTIRE rectangle is selected at once. But suppose you want to deal with only one leg of the rectangle. Choose the Explode function. Do it now. Deselect with RightClick. Now if you click on a leg of the rectangle only that side will be selected.

There's another interesting option, Group. More about this later.

For now, let's get going with the Trim Tools.

Trimming

The original rectangle is now a series of four lines, joined exactly at the ends. But after you Exploded it the program now recognizes each line entity separately. Draw another rectangle that overlaps the first, it doesn't matter how. Like on the left. Use the Rubber Stamp tool for this to practice. The exercise now is to create an outline (of a house?) and eliminate all the bits inside so that you're left with a perimeter.

1. Choose the TrimTool fly out. This is third from the right on the AIO toolbar. Hold down the Left button on the mouse and drag across the tools until you find the TrimJoin tool. It looks like a saucepan. A curve with a handle. Release the Left button on that one. Look at the pic below.

2. We're going to join all the single entities you have on the first rectangle back into one single rectangle entity. The cursor is now a little circle, the Status bar says select the first line, but it also says "Ctrl to join all connected". So hold the Ctrl key and click on one side of the first rectangle. RightClick to release the tool. Now if you Select the first rectangle, all the legs appear and it is now recognized as one entity again, instead of four separate lines. RightClick to release the tool - and I won't repeat this again, but you should do it as a matter of course. I call it called "deselecting".

3. Go back to the Trim menu and choose the TrimUnion tool. Note that Status bar. It's asking for you to choose the first polygon you want to unite - for lack of a better word. So move the little circle to one rectangle and LeftClick on it.

4. Again note the Status bar. It's asking for you to show the program the second polygon. LeftClick on the other rectangle. There it is, the outline of the two rectangles, like the figure to the left. Not only that, but if you click on that outline, you will see the entire outline is Selected, it is ONE entity. RightClick on it and choose Explode again. You see what's happening here. Each line has again become one entity. Practice with the TrimJoin tool and create one entity again.

One more word about this Selecting business. Select the outline again, move the cursor ANYWHERE inside the box (defined by the handle) and hold down the LeftClick button. Drag the outline around the paper. It moves as one entity (later we can discuss how you can move it exactly where you want it). If you Explode the outline before you move it, you can't do this. However, you CAN do something else:

You can Select any part of a drawing by holding down the left button and dragging it so the rectangle you're creating encloses the area you want to select. Everything that is enclosed will be selected. You can do this either left-to-right, or right-to-left. They are DIFFERENT selecting techniques, believe it or not. Now try this on the EXPLODED outline you just drew:

1. Place the cursor outside the top left of the outline. Hold down the left button and drag a rectangle to include everything. Release the button. The entire outline is selected, even though it is made up of single line entities. You can move the entire outline from here. Deselect it (RightClick).

2. Try this again but only include part of two sides. Nothing will be selected. But if you include an ENTIRE entity when you drag-select from left-to-right, it will Select. Practice drag-selecting from left-to-right.

3. Try the above exercise by drag-selecting from right-to-left. Now it's a different story. You don't have to include the entire entity before it can be Selected. This doesn't look like much, but you will find this to be quite useful.

Another useful Trim tool is Trim Corner. You will use this one frequently. Draw two lines (using Line Single) so that it appears like the pic on the right. Choose the Trim Corner tool (watch that status line at the bottom of the screen), click on one line, then the other. See what happens. When you get Paul's book, you'll see that he spends time with this tool. It's important. That's how you clean up your drawing and make it look nice. Get comfortable with this.

Since this is not a manual, I don't intend to explain the use of all the Trim tools, just enough to get you going with them. They are indispensable to create your drawings and you should know the use of most of them. Let's get on to something more interesting now.

Transform Tools

(Make sure Enable Multisnap is unticked for this, less to diddle with)

On the AIO tool bar you will see the Rubber Stamp. This is a Transform tool. You saw this same one before, on the pop-up menu that appeared when you RightClicked on a Selected entity. It's also an icon on the AIO, fourth from the left. However, unless there is a Selected entity in your drawing, this tool will not be accessible - i.e. it will be a gray-colored background icon.

There is a fly out under this. Just click on it and hold the button down, scan across the tools and read the descriptions. I'll describe a few of them and how/when to use them. The others you can figure out yourself, or ask questions on the newsgroup.

These Transform tools will allow you to move, change, or alter an object in your drawing with precision and accuracy. You use them with certain keyboard commands that are self-evident. You'll get the swing easily. Try this:

Suppose you want to move a box inside a box, at a certain place - like right in the corner. Make believe it is a bookcase you're moving into a room corner.

1. On an empty area of you drawing page, draw two separate rectangles, one large (the room) and one small. The small one is the bookcase. Select the bookcase. Note the Rubber Stamp icon. It's not gray anymore. You can now access all the Transform tools. Look at the picture on the left. That's what I see in the fly out.

2. Choose Rubber Stamp. When you move the cursor around, the bookcase moves with it. You're going to move it into the lower left corner of the room. Type E for end point and move the cursor toward that corner. When it pops into position, Left Click. Oops. The CENTER of the bookcase popped into the corner, and the bookcase overflows outside the room. Now maybe that AboutPoint idea is coming clear. Here's what you can do.

3. Type S for SNAP OFF! Go to the Main Menu and click the Undo icon. Back to where you started. Select the bookcases again, move the cursor to the AboutPoint and Right Click. Choose "Move About Point", type E and click on a corner.

4. Choose Rubber Stamp again and repeat the move in step 2. Now the corner of the bookcase moved to the corner of the room. But maybe it's along the wrong wall. So rotate it like we discussed before. Simple, and only one of about 10 ways to do that.

Undo the move, type S, and let's use another Transform tool to do the same thing, but better.

1. Select the bookcase and choose the Translate tool. (The Edit bar has a small box on the left. Tick it if you want to make a copy of what you're going to translate, and leave the original behind) The Status bar says "Enter From Point". You're going to choose a "From" point and a "To" point. For the "From" point, type E for EndPoint, and click on one corner of the bookcase. The Status bar says, "Enter To Point". Go to the room and click on the corner you want it place the bookcase. Done. One step.

Oh, you mean you chose a room corner where the bookcase fell outside the room? I guess you chose the wrong "From" point. Play with that a bit to get the feel of what this tool is doing. Rotate the bookcase before you Translate it, try popping around to different room corners, use different snaps, etc. So that's two Transform tools. Here's another:

1. Undo the bookcase move, type S and Select the bookcase again. Choose the Align tool. We're going to align the bookcase along one wall. The Status bar says, "Enter original axis startpoint".

2. Type E for EndPont and click on one end of the bookcase. The Status bar says, " Enter original axis endpoint". Click on the other end of the bookcase. You've chose the axis you want to line up.

3. The Status bar now says, "Enter new axis start point". Type M for Midpoint and click on a long wall of the room, right in the middle. The bookcase appears, but now move the cursor to an adjacent wall so that the bookcase angles out into the room. Click on that wall at the middle. The bookcase is now aligned along an axis defined by the midpoints of the walls.

So that's enough for now. At least it will show you how to move bits and pieces around. As a general rule, it's a good idea to create elements of your drawing off the area where you want them, and then move them into position with these Transform tools.

Multisnap

A final bit about this Multisnap business. Personally, I like it. You should get used to using it. Go to the Drawing Options page, and tick that Enable Multisnap box. (Don't tick the "Save as Default" yet until you decide which ones you want to ALWAYS have operating) Tick the End, Perpendicular, Midpoint and Nearest boxes. Click OK at the bottom.

Draw two lines, one straight horizontal and one diagonal, select the diagonal line and begin pulling one handle along the horizontal line and observe the snap icons. Like what's shown on the left. (Center snap shown) Get to recognize them. You'll see something unusual when the Perpendicular icon snaps to the line. It doesn't seem to be quite right. The diagonal line isn't perpendicular to the horizontal line at all. What's happening is that the END of the diagonal line is perpendicular to that point on the horizontal line. Stop yelling. There's a use for that.

The Content Librarian

When you first loaded R7 the Content Librarian appeared on the right side of the screen. Apparently, AutoDesk considers it an important new feature, so I guess we better talk about it.

First, if you need it, then leave it there. If you don't, then go to an empty area on the Toolbar, right click and untick it. However, for many operations it's quite useful. Let's start with a simple solid fill operation. Simple on the surface, that is. There will be few issues to consider.

1. Drag and Drop

Draw a rectangle using the Rectangle tool. Move your cursor to the top of the Content Librarian and hold it over the three icons there: Symbol, Solid Color, and Hatch. Click on Solid Color.

Click and drag any solid color into the rectangle. You can see that the fill overlaps the borderlines of the rectangle. Easily correctable, you say? Yup, it is. Select the solid color (click anywhere inside the rectangle). Now type [Ctrl]+B. For BACK. The solid color moves to the back of the rectangle. Leave that rectangle there.

2. Using The Property Toolbar

Draw another rectangle. Select it. Now go up to the Property Toolbar. It looks like the left pic. The little cup is the Pattern Selection icon. The arrow on the right will let you select Solid Color. Do that. The second rectangle immediately fills with the LAST COLOR you selected from the Content Librarian. Note that the rectangle borders are clearly visible now. Isn't THAT interesting. See above, right.

You can change the color of the solid fill icon on the Property Toolbar by just clicking on a different color in the Content Librarian.

Now we're gonna get a little more sophisticated. The entity on the left, the one filled by Drag-And-Drop, is actually TWO separate entities. One is the Fill, the other is the Rectangle. Select the Fill and drag it away from the Rectangle. (You may find that some of the rectangle disappears. Just move the page a bit and it will redraw.) You'll see it will do something similar to what's on the left. However, the Rectangle that was filled with the Property Toolbar is actually one entity. If you Select that one, you can move the entire entity, all together.

Here's where we can talk about Grouping. Remember when we spoke of that. What you can try is to go back to the rectangle you filled with the drag-and drop method using the Content Librarian. The fill and the rectangle are two separate entities. You can get them to act as ONE entity by grouping them together. Drag-select the rectangle and fill. Move the cursor to the inside of the selection (NOT the About Point), right-click and choose Group. Now try moving the rectangle. You'll see that the fill moves with it. They are considered ONE entity by the program.

Back to the Content Librarian again. Those icons on the top will let you select Hatches, or the Symbol Library. Try those out.

When you choose the Symbol Library, you'll see two more icons pop up. One is the entire set of Symbols, in discrete libraries, that come with the program. The other is an Explorer that will let you search you hard drive for any other symbols you get in the future. On the bottom there are EVEN MORE icons for placing the symbols correctly, arraying them, etc. You just have to use them and see how they work. They're extremely useful.

So carry on, folks. And ask questions on the newsgroup anytime you're stuck. They all get answered pretty quickly by the various know-it-alls who lurk in the middle distance. Not me, of course.

Send money, I'm beggin' ya.

Harvey

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download