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Placing a Symbol

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A symbol is a group of entities that AutoSketch treats as a single entity. You can save drawing time and establish a uniform look using symbols. AutoSketch responds faster and uses less storage space if you use symbols rather than repeatedly copying entities. AutoSketch stores the information it needs to draw a symbol once, regardless of how many times you use the symbol in the drawing. The symbol definition contains all of the information needed to place a symbol, including its geometry, graphic properties, and default database fields. Each time you place a symbol, AutoSketch records a symbol instance. A symbol instance marks the location to insert the image contained in the definition. While you can assign database information to most entity types, symbols are the only entity types that can contain database values before you place them. By creating symbols with default values specified for the type of information you want to track in your drawing, you can use symbols as building blocks for your drawing database. For information on storing database fields in symbols, see "Creating Symbol Definitions" on page 173. A drawing created with symbols is easier to update and maintain than one without symbols. For example, assume you have a drawing of an office floorplan with many identical doors. With symbols, if you decide to redesign the doors, you need only edit one door and redefine the symbol. All instances of the symbol are then automatically updated. Placing a Symbol AutoSketch provides two methods to place symbols in your drawing. You can place a symbol by: s Entering the basepoint of the symbol s Entering two points to align the symbol. You do not have to use the same snap or lock modifier for both points. That is, you could use Gridpoint snap for one point and Relative snap for the other. You can choose the symbol to place at these points using the Content Librarian. The Content Librarian allows you to place symbols in a drawing by draggingand-dropping a graphic representation of the symbol. You can change which symbols are available by clicking the drop-down list box and selecting a new symbol library. Also, you can browse for libraries through the Open Symbol Library dialog box, which appears when you click the Open Library button, or click Symbol, Change Library on the Draw menu. 168 | Chapter 14 Symbols

Section	Page
Contents	3
Chapter 1 Welcome	13
Contents of Package	14
System Requirements	14
Device Drivers	15
Installing AutoSketch	15
Registering AutoSketch	16
About This Guide	16
Visual Cues	17
Illustrations	18
Online Help	19
Chapter 2 Important Concepts	21
Entities	23
Properties	25
Coordinates	25
Drawing Origin	26
Grid Origin	27
Drawing Scale	27
Layers	27
Chapter 3 Screen Layout	29
Title Bar	30
Menu Bar	30
Drawing Windows	31
Page	32
Scroll Bars	33
Rulers	33
Split Boxes	33
Drawing and Grid Origin	34
Toolbars	35
Property Bar	36
Edit Bar	37
Status Bar	38
Content Librarian	40
Pop-up Menus	41
ToolTips and Pop-up Windows	41
Chapter 4 Opening & Saving Drawings	45
Opening a Drawing File	46
Combining Two Drawings	48
Saving a Drawing	49
Closing a Drawing	51
Finding a Drawing	51
Accessing Autodesk Point A	52
Chapter 5 Setting Up a New Drawing	53
The Wizards	54
Creating a New Drawing	54
Selecting a Template	56
Setting the Drawing Scale	57
Moving the Drawing Origin	59
Setting the Page Size	61
Using Rulers	63
Setting the Margins	64
Setting the Units of Measurement	64
Setting the International Units of Measurement	65
Setting the Linear Units	65
Setting the Angular Units of Measurement	66
Setting the Area Units of Measurement	66
Setting Decimal Precision for Scalar Values	67
Chapter 6 Customizing the Grid	69
Changing the Grid	71
Setting Up the Grid	71
Changing the Appearance of the Grid and the Drawing Origin	75
Using Guidelines	77
Using the Grid Edit Bar	80
Changing a Drawing’s Grid Type on the Grid EditBar	80
Changing Other Grid Settings on the Grid EditBar	81
Using the Grid Toolbar	82
Chapter 7 Printing, Plotting, and Publishing	85
Understanding Page Tiling	87
Selecting an Output Device	88
Printing a Drawing to Scale	88
Printing a Drawing to Fit on a Page	89
Setting the Drawing Scale Automatically	90
Publishing a Drawing File Set using eTransmit	91
Publishing a Drawing to the Web	93
Customizing a Publish to Web Template	94
Chapter 8 Controlling Views	97
Viewing Several Areas at Once	98
Using Preset Views	100
Zooming In and Out	100
Panning Across the Drawing	102
Using the IntelliMouse	103
Returning to a Previous View	104
Saving and Recalling Views	104
Viewing Drawing Details	105
Redrawing a Pane or Window	107
Arranging Drawing Windows	107
Chapter 9 Entering & Modifying Points	109
Entering a Point Based on Pointer Position	113
Entering a Point on the Reference Grid or Guideline	113
Entering a Point Exactly on an Entity	114
Entering a Point at a Specific Distance from an Endpoint	115
Entering the Midpoint of an Entity	115
Entering a Point at a Symbol Basepoint	116
Entering the Endpoint of an Entity	117
Entering a Point Where Two Entities Intersect	117
Entering a Point That Creates a Perpendicular	118
Entering the Center of an Arc or Circle	119
Entering a Point to Create a Tangent	120
Entering a Quadrant Point on an Arc orCircle	120
Entering a Point from the Keyboard	121
Using Lock Modifiers	124
Using Set Last Point	127
Modifying a Point	127
Chapter 10 Entering Lengths & Angles	129
Entering Lengths	130
Entering Angles	131
Entering a Scalar Value	135
Entering a Percentage Value	135
Chapter 11 Lines	139
Drawing Single Lines	140
Drawing Connected Lines	141
Drawing a Line in Relation to an Entity	144
Chapter 12 Polylines, Polygons, & Curves	147
Drawing Polylines	149
Sketching	151
Drawing Irregular Polygons	153
Drawing Clouds	155
Drawing Regular Polygons	157
Drawing Curves	161
Chapter 13 Arcs & Circles	165
Drawing Arcs Based on Points	167
Drawing Circles Based on Points	169
Drawing Tangent Circles	171
Drawing Ellipses	173
Chapter 14 Symbols	177
Placing a Symbol	178
Inserting Symbols in Lines, Polylines, and Polygons	180
Creating Symbol Definitions	183
Managing Symbols in the Content Explorer	186
Managing Symbol Libraries	187
Editing Symbol Definitions	188
Using AutoExplode	191
Setting a Current Symbol	191
Setting a Current Library	192
Chapter 15 3D Effects	195
Using Extrusion Tools	196
Using Isometric Transformation Tools	200
Customizing 3D Effects	201
Changing Render Settings	201
Changing Extrusion Property Settings	204
Changing Isometric Origin Settings	205
Chapter 16 Pen & Pattern Properties	207
Setting Pen Properties	208
Using Color Palettes	210
Setting the Pattern Properties of an Entity	212
Creating a Boundary Fill	213
Matching Entity Properties	216
Changing the Hatch Spacing and Angle	217
Adding Bitmap Images for Bitmap Fills	217
Chapter 17 Working with Text	221
Placing Text	223
Modifying Text	227
Changing Text Height, Angle, Justification, and Wrap Width	227
Choosing a Font	228
Editing Text with the Text Editor	228
Editing Text with the Inplace Editor	232
Checking Spelling	233
Chapter 18 Creating Dimensions	235
Linear Dimensions	236
Single Dimensions	237
Chained Dimensions	238
Baseline Dimensions	240
Changing Linear Dimensions With the Mouse	241
Angular Dimensions	242
Changing Angular Dimensions With the Mouse	243
Radius Dimensions	244
Changing Radius Dimensions With the Mouse	245
Diameter Dimensions	246
Changing Diameter Dimensions With the Mouse	247
Centerline Dimensions	248
Ordinate Dimensions	248
Leaders	249
Chapter 19 Markers	251
Placing a Marker	252
Selecting a Marker Type	255
Chapter 20 Selecting & Deleting Entities	259
Selecting Entities with the Mouse	260
Selecting All Entities in a Drawing	262
Using the Selection Modifier	262
Aligning the Selection Handles	265
Clearing a Selection Set	266
Modifying the Properties for the Entire Selection Set	266
Marquee Selection	267
Deleting Entities	269
Chapter 21 Undoing, Redoing, & Repeating Actions	271
Undoing Actions	272
Redoing Actions	272
Repeating Commands	273
Chapter 22 Moving, Rotating, & Resizing Entities	275
Working With the About Point	276
Moving or Copying an Entity	277
Rotating an Entity	280
Rubber Stamping an Entity	283
Creating Patterns of Duplicate Entities	284
Parallel Placement of Duplicate Entities	287
Mirroring an Entity	289
Scaling an Entity	291
Stretching an Entity	292
Arranging Entities	293
Repeating a Transformation	294
Chapter 23 Trimming Entities	295
Creating a Corner Between Two Entities	296
Rounding an Intersection	297
Beveling an Intersection	298
Trimming to an Edge	299
Removing Sections of Entities	300
Dividing an Entity	301
Dividing an Entity into Equal Segments	302
Creating an “Alcove” in a Line or Polyline	303
Joining Entities	304
Combining Two Polygons	305
Creating a Polygon from the Intersection of Two Polygons	306
Subtracting One Polygon From Another	306
Chapter 24 Reshaping Entities	309
Selecting Vertices	311
Moving and Aligning Vertices	311
Moving a Segment	313
Adding a Vertex, Segment, or Bulge	313
Editing the Properties of a Polyline or Polygon Segment	315
Controlling the Visibility of a Segment	315
Deleting a Vertex or Segment	316
Opening and Closing Poly Entities	317
Dividing a Polyline at a Vertex	318
Reshaping Arcs and Circles	319
Chapter 25 Converting & Exploding Entity Types	323
Converting Entities to Polylines and Polygons	325
Converting Arcs and Circles	326
Converting Curves	326
Closing and Opening Curves	327
Converting Polylines and Polygons	327
Converting TrueType Fonts	328
Exploding Entities	330
Chapter 26 Making Inquiries	331
Displaying Information About a Specific Entity	332
Displaying Information on the Selection Set	333
Displaying the Coordinates of a Point	334
Measuring Distances	334
Measuring Angles	336
Measuring Areas	338
Chapter 27 Storing Data in a Drawing	343
Creating Fields	344
Assigning Fields and Values to Entities	345
Calculated Values	346
Removing Fields	349
Chapter 28 Retrieving Data From a Drawing	351
Creating Reports	352
Organizing Reports	354
Sending Information to Other Applications	355
Displaying Values in a Drawing	357
Including AutoFields	358
Chapter 29 Using Web Tools	361
Assigning URLs	363
Browsing Hyperlinks	364
Using Hyperlink Jumps	365
Appendix A	367
Advanced Topics found in online Help	368
Glossary	369
Index	389
A	389
B	390
C	390
D	391
E	392
F	393
G	393
H	394
I	394
J	394
K	394
L	394
M	395
N	395
O	395
P	395
Q	396
R	396
S	397
T	398
U	399
V	399
W	399
X	399
Y	399

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168

Chapter 14

Symbols

A symbol is a group of entities that AutoSketch treats as a single entity. You

can save drawing time and establish a uniform look using symbols.

AutoSketch responds faster and uses less storage space if you use symbols

rather than repeatedly copying entities.

AutoSketch stores the information it needs to draw a symbol once, regardless

of how many times you use the symbol in the drawing. The

symbol definition

contains all of the information needed to place a symbol, including its geom-

etry, graphic properties, and default database fields. Each time you place a

symbol, AutoSketch records a

symbol instance

. A symbol instance marks the

location to insert the image contained in the definition.

While you can assign database information to most entity types, symbols are

the only entity types that can contain database values before you place them.

By creating symbols with default values specified for the type of information

you want to track in your drawing, you can use symbols as building blocks

for your drawing database. For information on storing database fields in

symbols, see “Creating Symbol Definitions” on page 173.

A drawing created with symbols is easier to update and maintain than one

without symbols. For example, assume you have a drawing of an office floor-

plan with many identical doors. With symbols, if you decide to redesign the

doors, you need only edit one door and redefine the symbol. All instances of

the symbol are then automatically updated.

Placing a Symbol

AutoSketch provides two methods to place symbols in your drawing. You can

place a symbol by:

■

Entering the basepoint of the symbol

■

Entering two points to align the symbol.

You do not have to use the same snap or lock modifier for both points. That

is, you could use Gridpoint snap for one point and Relative snap for the

other. You can choose the symbol to place at these points using the Content

Librarian.

The Content Librarian allows you to place symbols in a drawing by dragging-

and-dropping a graphic representation of the symbol. You can change which

symbols are available by clicking the drop-down list box and selecting a new

symbol library

. Also, you can browse for libraries through the Open Symbol

Library dialog box, which appears when you click the Open Library button,

or click Symbol, Change Library on the Draw menu.