A Few Interface Basics

Topic

Sometimes we just can't get around to writing a whole article addressing a particular topic. However, we often toss together quick demonstration movies to help folks out. This article has some demonstration movies and slide shows for various bits related some of the basics of the PowerCADD Interface... they're not perfect but until we get around to dotting the i's and crossing the t's, these will have to suffice

Requirements

Minimum: PowerCADD v6, Mac OS^? 9 or OS X (movies illustrate PowerCADD 6 interface in Mac OS X)
Recommended: PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS X
Need Movie Help?

Tangent Snapping [290KB]: This movie shows how Tangent Snapping works. Simply press the T key before starting the drawing process. Remember to watch the Snap Indicator Window at the top of the screen and look for the red dot on the circle -- this confirms Tangent Snapping is enabled.

Snap Indicator Window Settings [275KB]: Press the Control Key and click on the Snap Indicator Window to change it's font preferences.

Drawing Setup / Size Dialog [250KB]: You should review the PowerCADD Manual for a complete description of all the features of the Drawing Setup / Size settings but this quick flick shows you some of the neat features like the drawing preview, zooming and setting sheet sizes.

Page Setup Demonstration [1.1MB]: A quick review on how preform a page setup and choose a sheet size -- in this case up to 200 x 200 inches!

Layer Attributes (300KB downnload) Layer Attributes can be assigned to multiple selected layers. In this demo movie, we pressed the Command key as we clicked on each layer as it allowed us to select layers at random (i.e. the layers were not all in the same order)

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Arrow Heads on Rounded Rectangles

Question

When I draw a Round Rectangle in PowerCADD on the X, Y axis it looks correct. However, when I rotate the Round Rectangle it now renders to screen with arrow heads. Why did this happen and how do I fix it?

Requirements

PowerCADD v6 and Mac OS^? X Panther
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.4) or newer recommended

Background

It is possible to assign an arrow style to a Round Rectangle after it's drawn. You can also assign arrow attributes to the Round Rectangle Tool itself. The same rules hold true for Rotated Rectangles and other PowerCADD objects.

Round Rectangles typically do not render to screen with arrow styles. There is, however, a unique condition that occurs when a Round Rectangles is rotated -- it becomes a Polygon. The Polygon is composed of numerous vertices which follow the shape of the original Round Rectangle. Like all closed polygons, there is a start point and an end point which are in the same X, Y position (obviously required to close the shape).

How could this happen?

There are two typical situations which can cause this condition. First, the Round Rectangle was accidentally assigned an arrow attribute after it was created. This might happen by using the PowerCADD Eye Dropper Tool, or WildTOOLs Needle Tool and you accidentally clicked on the Round Rectangle in the drawing. Another common situation is the object may have been accidentally selected as part of other objects to which the arrow style needed to be applied. Second, arrow attributes could have been assigned to the Round Rectangle Tool before drawing. In either case, you will not see the problem when a Round Rectangle is drawn on the X,Y axis since, when on axis, it is not described with the start and end points like a Polygon.

What to do

The fix is easy and there are two choices:

1. Select the Round Rectangle object that was rotated and exhibits the problem (which is now a Polygon) and assign an Arrow pattern of none.
2. Double click on the Round Rectangle Tool in the Tool Palette (this will deselect all objects) and make sure the tool is assigned an arrow style of none.

We've prepared this quick demonstration movie (1.7MB download) which shows many of the various conditions and the fixes. In this demonstration movie we are pressing the Control key and clicking on the objects or tool palette to assign attributes but you can also use the Default Window, Attributes Window or Attributes menu. In the end, it comes down to PowerCADD showing you exactly what attributes were assigned for the type of object created. (need movie help?)

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Bitmaps and Highlight Selection

Question

Should bitmaps be treated as a special condition when Highlight Selection (Choose PowerCADD menu > Preferences > View > Highlight Selection) is enabled?

Requirements

PowerCADD v6 and Mac OS^? X Panther
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.4) or newer recommended

Discussion

A special condition doesn't seem necessary since the there are only a few conditions where a bitmap alone would want to be selected and the behavior now seems predictable when Highlight Selection is Enabled. Note that while the specific points below mention bitmaps, the same condition is true for PICT^? or PDF^? objects -- they all react in the same, consistent, fashion as noted here.

In looking at whether a special case exists for treating bitmaps uniquely when Highlight Selection is Enabled, it seems to a good start point is to evaluate how bitmaps are treated now in various common drawing conditions. A few of those conditions are discussed below.

multiple selections: A related article on this site describes that multiple selections (a bitmap plus an object( above it) behave correctly in that objects on layers above the bitmap will render to screen when selected. There is a nuance where objects on the same layer as the bitmap become obscured -- however for drawing management reasons large bitmaps are typically always on their own layer so this seems to be a non-issue in that context.

move by drag: These articles (here and here ) describe how to make the selected bitmap( transparent in that condition without turning off Highlight Selection.

resize: bitmaps becomes transparent during a drag to resize operation. This presumes PowerCADD menu > Preferences > View > Transparent Drawing is enabled which seems like a reasonable presumption since we can't have a discussion of Transparency^? of bitmaps or any object if those preferences are disabled.

crop: bitmaps becomes transparent during a crop operation

deleting: clearly not an issue for transparency -- select the item and delete it.

apply bitmap effect: (choose Tool menu > Apply Bitmap Effect...) Transparency when selected doesn't seem important in this condition since only the bitmap is selected for the effect and the preview is specific to the QuickTime window, not the entire drawing window. After applying the QT Effect the item is rendered to screen normally when deselected

applying bitmap transition tools: (Bitmap Effect Tool and Bitmap Transformation Tool) Transparency of the selected bitmap might be important if the 4 sided polygon it's being mapped to is above it. However it seems more likely the polygon being mapped to is either adjacent it or can be easily moved for this single condition

Print Selection: This is a bit of an odd one. Selecting only a bitmap to define the region to be printed (for example for Selected Object/Fit to Page) will obscure other data above it which will in fact be printed. One could argue it's not consistent with a WYSIWYG^? printing environment but this seems like a case where having a unique print region layer (with a rectangle or 2 snap points) fixes the condition and has other management benefits.

Consistency: This might be an issue as being a case for a special condition. A filled object (e.g. rectangle solid red) does not obscure data when selected and Highlight Selection is enabled. Then again, the rectangle can be edited (e.g. to change fill pattern or color) so one needs to see it in context. Since bitmaps become transparent when edited as described in other points above perhaps things are consistent in that context and the need for a special condition isn't necessary after all.

Other conditions may apply that aren't described above but it seems those are the majority of conditions which seem to work even if Highlight Selection is enabled.

The other part of the question

For the sake of discussion, let's presume a case can be made to treat bitmaps as a special condition. How should the bitmap be treated if not as described above?

Some immediate thoughts are:

Make the bitmap transparent: This already seems to be happening now but the bitmap could automatically be rendered as transparent when selected and Highlight Selection preference is enabled. The down side to this might be a significant performance hit since that transparent preview needs to be 'built' before it can be rendered to screen. In light of the fact many users now are running Mac OS X and PowerCADD 6 on legacy machines, this may not be a practical solution. In PowerCADD 7 running in OS X on newer hardware might not be adversly affected.

Show only a bounding box: When a bitmap is selected, a bounding box could be shown instead of the content of the bitmap. This solution has the potential of being very fast with respect to performance and could benefit users on new and legacy hardware. Further, it seems this could be an application level preference which is not directly related to Highlight Selection. That is, the preference would be a View preference which could allows users to always render selected bitmaps as 'bounding boxes only' (verses showing transparent content). This might have more merit that attempting to link things with the current Highlight Selection Preference. Clearly, if this feature were enabled, then one needs to go back and consider the implications of what happens when bitmaps are cropped or resized --a condition where a full verses bounding box only preview is essential to performing the task.

Low Rez Preview: Rather than a simple empty bounding box (which is potentially scary for a user to see) a low resolution preview might be the other model to consider. When a bitmap is selected, rather the rendering a high quality preview (currently the case), a low resolution - pixelated - preview may be faster to render. Of course this is also a potentially scary notion for many users since they click on an item and it changes on screen and they may think it's potentially destructive. Still, it might be worth considering - look at Apple's iPhoto for example which generates pixelated previews which become sharper after scrolling or loading has completed.

Similar to Hide Dimensions/Hatches/Text: (PowerCADD menu > Preferences > View // or // View menu > Hide Text / Hide Hatch / Hide Dimensions). The existing feature to hide Text, Dimensions and Hatching is currently in place to help tweak performance. Given this precedent, is the concept of a "Hide Bitmap" which would still render the bounding box (or some other mode of visual feedback) when selected any different? It seems they are all related at a conceptual level as they hide information from the user which is intended to help improve performance.

Summary

Based on the current behavior of bitmaps when Highlight Selection is enabled, there does not appear to be a case for treating them as special under those conditions. However, for general performance reasons, having a user preference which allows bitmaps to be displayed as transparent (currently the case) or as bounding box only or low resolution preview may be a direction worth pursing which would benefit system and application performance in general for every user rather than only those users who work with Highlight Selection enabled. Give we already have the ability to Hide Hatch/Text/Dimensions perhaps a logical precedent has been set and users would be comfortable (not surprised or shocked) with the idea of a 'hidden bitmap' which somehow shows only an outline.

Ultimately it comes down to clarity of communication with the user. The current model is very communicative and clear -- essentially not broken or lack of a better description. Still, there's always room for improvement and discussion is the only way to test ideas.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Dragging or Selecting Bitmaps Obscures Data

Question

When I drag or select a bitmap, it obscures all other data in my drawing. This is true even when the bitmap is on the bottom most layer of the layer stack. How do we correct the problem?

Requirements:

PowerCADD v6.0.8 and Mac OS^? 10.3.2
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS 10.4.4 recommended

Background

This related article in our Answer Archives : Preview When Dragging Objects : may also contain helpful information

To allow users to optimize their work environment, PowerCADD has several application level preferences allowing you to fine tune performance, particularly with respect to working with Quartz in Mac OS X.

What to Do

There are three options to address the screen redraw condition being described

Option 1: read this related article in our Answer Archives: Preview When Dragging Objects

Option 2: Adjust the Transparent Drawing Preference:

1. Choose PowerCADD menu → Preferences... → View Tab → Use Transparent Drawing settings
2. when Transparent Drawing = ON (checked), bitmaps render semi transparent and all data is visible when dragging
3. When Transparent Drawing = OFF (unchecked), bitmaps render 100% opaque (solid) and all data is obscured when dragging with the exception of the selected object

If you prefer to work with Transparent Drawing = OFF, then Option 1 may well contain the better solution.

Option 3: Highlight Selection Preference:

When Highlight Selection is turned on (checked), a selected bitmap will obscure all other data even when that bitmap is the bottom most object or on the on the bottom most layer. Disabling Highlight Selection corrects the condition, do this:

1. Choose PowerCADD menu → Preferences...
2. Click the View tab
3. Uncheck Highlight Selection
4. Result: When a bitmap is selected it will no longer obscure other data in the drawing above it

Note, if Highlight Selection = On (checked), and the bitmap is on the bottom most layer, selecting multiple objects which include the bitmap will still render all objects. That is, objects above the bitmap will be highlighted (grayed out) thereby allowing all objects to be seen. Objects on the same layer but on top of the bitmap will be obscured when they're all selected which is somewhat of an anomaly but may not be an issue as large bitmaps are typically always on their own layer for drawing management purposes.

The combination of preference settings noted above become important as they interact with each other during drag and selection operations. If you work with large bitmaps in drawings, looking carefully at how each combination works together will be important to find the best fit for your particular work flow. Don't forget to read the article described in Option 1 for additional information.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Drawing with a Touch Pad Feels Jumpy

Question

When I use the touch pad on my PowerBook to draw in PowerCADD the cursor feels jumpy and imprecise. This makes it very difficult or almost impossible to use snapping effectively, perform simple drag to move operations, or navigate using the interactive Pan Tool. How to do fix the problem?

Requirements

PowerCADD v6 and Mac OS^? X Panther or Mac OS 9
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.4) or newer recommended

Background

The nature of drawing with a computer requires fine control in tracking the position of the mouse and cursor to achieve smooth and accurate results. Tracking accuracy with external mice or a tablet and stylus will typically provide better accuracy and improve the feel of drawing in any application. However, there are times when using the trackpad on a laptop is necessary.

Ignore Accidental Trackpad Input (a System Level Preference) is often checked ON to avoid those frustrating moments when the trackpad is accidentally touched during a typing or scrolling operation in traditional word processing or general use applications. The accidental touches cause significant frustration as the cursor moves or jumps to a new insertion point without the user recognizing what happened. However, PowerCADD (and other drawing applications) don't see those minor touches of the trackpad as accidental. Rather, the minor mouse movements are important nuances to how a drawing applications provides important visual feedback and is critical to the feel of the drawing process.

What to do

The fix for improving the tracking and feel of drawing with a trackpad is simple:

1. Choose Apple Menu > System Preferences > Mouse & Keyboard > Trackpad
2. Uncheck Ignore Accidental Trackpad Input (unchecked = Off)
3. Choose System Preferences > Quit System Preferences

Now, when you return to PowerCADD, the cursor should feel much smoother and more responsive.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

How do Key Commands Work

Question

I have key commands assigned to specific Line Weights, Dash Patterns and Arrow Styles. How does PowerCADD assign key commands to Line Weights and other object attributes?

Requirements

PowerCADD any version (version 7.0 or newer recommended)

Background

For a complete description on how to assign your own Custom Key commands to any PowerCADD menu item or tool, please reference the PowerCADD manual.

PowerCADD allows you to assign your own key commands to any tool or menu item in the application (PowerCADD menu > Preferences > Commands Tab), including Line Weights, Dash Patterns, Colors, and Arrow Styles, and so on. A printed list of these key commands is saved in the PowerCADD Key Defaults file (User Directory/Library/Preferences/PowerCADD/PowerCADD Key Defaults) that may be opened and printed for general reference.

Note: The PowerCADD Key Defaults is created when you add your first custom key command. If you never add your own custom commands, then the PowerCADD Key Defaults will not be created. In that case, for a complete listing of the default key commands reference the PowerCADD user manual.

Assigning a key command to a Line Weight, Arrow Style, Dash Pattern, or Colors actually assigns the key command to a unique position in the menu, not the actual value itself. For example, assigning the key command Shift + 1 to the 0.25 point Line Weight (Attr menu > Lines > 0.25 point) actually assign the key command to the first position of the Line Weight sub-menu.

But wait! You may have noticed, if you usually work in millimetres, the PowerCADD Key Defaults file lists your Line Weight key commands by numeric value (e.g. .18, .25, .35, etc). If the Line Weight key command were actually assigned by Position, shouldn't they read Line 1, Line 2, etc.?

In this case it's important to remember PowerCADD is putting a polite, user friendly, face on the database which actually makes up the Key Command lookup table. Since PowerCADD permits multiple Line Weights (and other object attributes) in a single drawing, and those Line Weights can be in any order with any unit (mm, inches, points), assigning values by name would quickly create an database list which would become impractical to manage.

What's Happening?

Behind every menu item name is a number. The text displayed in the PowerCADD Key Defaults file is all just a fascade for the database. To see physical proof of this, do this:

1. create two new, untitled drawings
2. in drawing one, adjust the Line Weight attributes to be in mm (millimetres)
3. in drawing two, leave the Line Weight attributes in points
4. with drawing two active, assign a key command to the 0.25 point line weight (first position in the Line submenu)
5. draw a line in drawing two and use the key command assigned in (4)
6. note the object is assigned a line weight of 0.25 point (first line weight position)
7. make drawing one active and draw a line
8. use the key command assigned in (4)
9. note the object is assigned the mm line weight value specified in the first position for that drawing

The same rules applies for Dash Patterns, Colors, Arrow Styles and other object attributes.

How does this work?

The entire menu structure could be likened to a cascading waterfall. For example, in OS^? X, to navigate to the First Line weight in the Attribute menu the waterfall, from highest level to lowest level, would look like (apologies to the programmers reading this - we realize the summary here is quite general in it's description) :

-application "PowerCADD" or any app. and this isn't even the top of the waterfall
---menu bar 1
-----menu title "Attr" (9) {Attr menu is the 9th position over counting the Apple menu}
--------menu "Attr" (1)
----------menu item "Line" (1) {First item in the Attr menu}
------------menu "Line" (1)
--------------menu item "0.25 point" (1) {1st item in the Line submenu}
--------------menu item "1 point" (2) {2nd item in the Line submenu}
--------------repeats for each item in the list

The same basic structure holds true for dash patterns, arrows, etc.

The Key Command is assigned to the specific part of the waterfall - whatever is in that position is what the Key Command goes and gets.

Imagine how complex the path would become if it was called by name - there would be a unique name for every possible size for each of the three units (points,mm,inches) - scary stuff!

Having said that - there can be times when it's advantgeous to call items by menu name instead of number. For example some items change position in the menus when an external is or isn't loaded. But that's starting to get a bit carried away.

We hoped that help lay the foundation for a more complete understanding as to some of the nuances with assigning key commands to Line Weights and other object attributes.

caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support by buying us coffee, lunch, or dinner. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Keeping Everyone on the Same Page

Question

What are my options for keeping everyone in my office on the same page with respect to using the same line weights, colors, layers, etc.?

Requirements

PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS^? X ( OS 10.4.4 recommended)

Background

PowerCADD 6 used Stationery Pads as the primary method for keeping everyone on the same page. In PowerCADD 7, Engineered Software introduced a new feature, Global Attributes which can also be used (note: Stationery Pads still exist in PowerCADD 6)

The distinction between Global Attributes and Stationery Pads for keeping folks on the same page is distinct.

The Differences

Global Attributes (accessed by choosing PowerCADD menu > Preferences... > General tab > Global Attributes check box )allows you to create common attribute menu items for Line weights, Pen and Fill Color, Fill Patterns, hatch patterns, Dashes, Arrows and Attribute Styles. The settings are saved in a dedicated default file named Default Table which is stored in user directory > Library > Preferences > PowerCADD folder > Default Table file.

It would be possible for a user to seed the Default Table file, put that on a server, and let others copy that file to their location to see the same attributes.

If everybody does not have the Default Table then they will NOT all see the same menu choices for the above note attributes.

That could be an issue so proceed carefully to really understand what Global Attributes is doing before going whole hog. It's a great feature -- just move carefully is my advice

What Global Attributes doesn't do is allow you to setup standard Layers, Sheet Setups, source objects like Title Blocks, Drawing scales, etc. -- that's where Stationery Pads still have their place as they can contain custom Attributes and all the other items listed above. In the case of a single Stationery used in an office, it could be saved on a server and PowerCADD can be told to grab that file on launch. In the case of multiple stationery pads, an alias to that folder on a server can be used locally to link to the various files. Both of those methods can, in some circumstances, make it easier to keep multiple people on the same page.

The PowerCADD 7 manual has several pages on Global Attributes and it's worth reviewing that and playing with it at the same time to see the implications. I recommend starting with a single custom attribute (something obvious like a huge fat line weight or custom fill pattern) first to see how that works then build up from there.

There is no right or wrong answer with respect to which to use -- Global Attributes or Stationery Pads. Each have strengths and weakness. Best advice it to experiment and see what works best for your particular conditions.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Maximum Number of Layers

Question

Is there a maximum number of layers I can have in my PowerCADD drawings?

Requirements

Any version of PowerCADD and Mac OS^? (PowerCADD 7 or newer recommended, Mac OS X 10.4.3 or newer recommended)

Background

PowerCADD (and it's predecessor PowerDRAW) allow you create multiple layers in a single drawing (think of them as sheets of mylar or acetate for those of us old enough to remember manual overlay drafting).

In practical terms, there is no limit to the number of layers you can have in a drawing. Just how many are too many or too few layers is a matter of personal organization preference and the type of drawing one does.

In physical terms - sure, there is a limit. According to Engineered Software (authors of PowerCADD) that limit is 32,000 layers. Now, that's a lot of layers and we've been unwilling to take the time to try and physically test that limit.

Suffice to say that maximum of 32,000 layers , even if empty, would create a pretty darn large and incredibly slow drawing in terms of performance. We're also not sure how many monitors would be required to navigate that type of layer structure.

What to do

Take a common sense approach and create as many layers as necessary to organize your work for maximum flexibility. It's unlikely you'll ever hit that 32,000 layer limit - at least we hope you never hit it !

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support by buying us coffee, lunch, or dinner. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Methods of Panning/Scrolling :: PowerCADD

Question

How can I pan or scroll in the drawing window?

Requirements

PowerCADD v6
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS^? X Tiger (10.4.4) or newer recommended

Discussion

Panning or Scrolling in a drawing window is the other side of the general drawing navigation coin (zooming in or out being the flip side of that coin). Here, in no particular order, are the methods available for panning (or scrolling) in a PowerCADD drawing (please reference the PDF^? or printed manuals for specific, step by step, instructions on using these methods):

(1) Pan Tool:
In the first row of the tool palette, choose the Pan Tool then press and drag in the drawing window to 'move the paper' so you can see the desired area. This has been a Mac OS standard for decades and is available in various drawing applications.

(2) Interactive Pan:
Similar to the Pan Tool only it goes to the next logical level! With any drawing tool selected, simply press the Space Bar. The cursor will change to the 'grab hand' - press and drag to pan - release the Space Bar and you're drawing tool is still active - how cool is that!

(3) Scroll Arrows:
Click on a scroll arrow will move you up, down, left or right one line depending on which arrow you press (again, this is a Mac OS standard but it's so common sense it's too easy to miss, especially for new users or Windows / AutoCad converts). Of course there are some creative twists that make this feature even more useful. If you'd like to tweak performance, choose PowerCADD menu > Preferences > View and specify a smaller or larger number in the Line Scroll field. The Mac OS typically allows users to put scroll arrows at the top or grouped together at only the bottom - however - did you know you can also specify 'double scroll arrows' at both the top/bottom/left/right of the drawing window? That's right - here's a screen shot of how they look. The amount of mousing around this saves is significant!

(4) Scroll Up/Down/Left/Right
You can assign custom key commands which perform the same task as clicking on an up/down/left/right scroll arrow. Choose PowerCADD menu > Preferences > Commands > Miscellaneous and assign a key command to Scroll Up, Scroll Down, Scroll Left or Scroll Right.

5) Scroll Bars
Press and drag on a scroll bar (vertical or horizontal) to reveal a different portion of the drawing area. Again this is a Mac OS standard which can be customized in PowerCADD to help you optimize performance for your particular hardware configuration. Choose PowerCADD menu > Preferences > View and specify a smaller or larger number in the Page Scroll field. (see previous image)

(6) Area Between Scroll Bars and Scroll Arrows
Here is yet another Mac OS golden oldie method of navigation. If you click in the grey area between a scroll bar and a scroll arrow, you will advance height or width of the drawing window. This can be a great way to surf around a drawing, one drawing window 'tile' at a time. Think of this as moving 'one page' at a time where a page is defined as what you can see in the drawing window (remember, the drawing window can be any size and this feature will behave consistently with respect to that size).

[inline:Scroll02.jpg]

(7) Page Up/Down/Left/Right arrows
There are key commands which are also available to move one drawing window at time in the direction specified by the arrow. This has the same effect as clicking in the grey area between scroll bars and scroll arrows described earlier. The default key commands assigned are Shift + [the arrow key] where [the arrow key] is left, right, up or down as shown on the keyboard. Like all other PowerCADD key commands, you may also assign your own custom values by choosing PowerCADD menu > Preferences > Commands > Miscellaneous and choosing Page Up, Page Down, Page Left or Page Right.

(8 ) Auto Scroll
When dragging to draw or move an object, the screen will automatically scroll when your mouse collides with an invisible barrier on all sides of the drawing window. If you are having a difficult time getting this feature to work correctly, choose PowerCADD menu > Preferences > General and uncheck the box next to Drag and Drop Enabled. There is a fine line between wanting to drag and drop information out of the drawing window and wanting to enable auto scroll and early versions of PowerCADD v6 had a smaller 'sweet spot'. We recommend making sure you have the latest version of PowerCADD v6 to ensure the drag and drop verses auto scroll interface is working correctly.

(9) Overview Window
Press and drag on the red zoom rectangle in the Overview Window to move it. As the red zoom rectangle moves the main drawing window is updated.

In addition to the zooming techniques described in our related article and panning/scrolling, Sheet Setups (Layout menu > Sheets) and Saved Views (View menu > Views and View menu > Store Views) are also excellent means of further optimizing your drawing navigation. We hope that's helpful and gives you a few ideas on how you can navigate your drawings quickly and easily. Remember, there isn't any single method that will work for every drawing situation so practice them all and before you know it they'll become second nature.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

New Quick Pan Feature

New Feature in 7.0.2

The ability to Pan has been improved in PowerCADD v7.02 with the addition Quick Pan.

Requirements

PowerCADD v7.0.2 or newer

Background

PowerCADD v7.0.2 builds on the previous Pan tool to now allow for Quick Pan. In effect, Quick Pan temporarily disables or modified the redraw the following items to screen:

• Hatch Patterns
• Opacity^? effects
• Shadows
• Text is Greeked (turned to gray boxes)

What To Do

There are two methods to enable Quick Pan which we'll describe here.

Option 1: Selecting the Pan Tool.
To enable Quick Pan do this:

1. Choose the Pan tool from the Tool Palette
2. Press Option as you drag the Pan icon on the screen
3. Observe: some items are not rendered to screen as you pan through the drawing but all primary drawing objects are there for navigation context
4. Release Option to restore the screen redraw to it's normal state

Option 2: Interactive Pan when another tool is selected
To enable Quick Pan do this:

1. With any drawing tool selected, press Option + Space Bar
2. The Pan tool is temporarily activated.
3. Drag the mouse to pan in the drawing
4. Observe: some items are not rendered to screen as you pan through the drawing but all primary drawing objects are there for navigation context
5. Release Option to restore the screen redraw to it's normal state and your previous tool selection is restored

What we'd like to see:
We'd like to see this same Quick Pan technology applied to all the various methods of Panning and Scrolling available in PowerCADD as described in the manual and in this article on our website.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Opacity verses Transparency

Question

With the introduction of PowerCADD 7, Engineered Software has introduced a new opacity feature which allows us to independently adjust pen, fill and layer opacity . Well, what is it and how does that compare to transparency?

Requirements

PowerCADD version 7.0 or newer and Mac OS^? X (v 10.4.4 or newer recommended)

Background

If you're already familiar with other applications such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign, or if you've used Apple's Pages or Keynote applications, then you may already be familiar with the concept of opacity. However, the feature is new to PowerCADD 7 so let's begin with two simple definitions which lay the foundation for understanding the principles of opacity in PowerCADD 7

Opacity^?: The condition of lacking transparency or translucence. We cannot see through objects which are 100% opaque.

Transparency^?: The condition of being transparent or see through. An object which is 100% transparent is invisible.

In simple terms, transparency is the result of changing an objects opacity.

What does this mean?

In all versions of PowerCADD, prior to version 7, objects had two states. 100% opaque (we could not see through them) or 0% opaque (they were totally transparent). Think of a circle with a solid fill pattern. It obscured everything below it; the fill pattern was opaque. If that same circle had a fill pattern of Nil, we could see all objects below it; the fill pattern was invisible.

So, why is the new opacity feature in PowerCADD 7 referred to as opacity and not transparency?
In physical terms, we adjust opacity thereby determining to what degree information is hidden or revealed below. For example, an opacity of 100% hides all information below an object or layer . An opacity of 10% would appear almost totally transparent, allowing you to see through to objects below. In the example shown below, we adjusted the objects fill opacity from 100% (solid) to 0% (invisible); notice how we see more of the line below as the circles fill pattern becomes more transparent.





Why do the objects appear to fade to white?
In the above examples, the objects appear to fade to white because the background (in this case the PowerCADD drawing page) is white. However, if the objects below the transparent objects are colored, then the color tint will be different. Here's a simple example where the same solid blue fill object with a 40% or 20% fill opacity is overlaid on different colors and patterns. When compared to the white or black background on the far left, adjusting the objects opacity does not specifically fade to white. Rather, the color is a mix between the foreground (transparent) objects and background (opaque) objects.

While it's easy to confuse transparency and opacity, they are essentially opposite sides of the same coin. We change opacity to make something more see through, in effect making something more or less transparent. Put another way, adjusting opacity is like fading in or out. We fade in to solid, we fade out to invisible by adjusting an objects opacity.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support by buying us coffee, lunch, or dinner. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Preference File Locations :: PowerCADD7

Question

Where are all the preference files stored for PowerCADD and WIldTools in Mac OS^? X?

Requirements

PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS X Tiger or newer recommended

Background

Because Mac OS X is a multi-user operating system, application preferences are unique to each user not specific to the core operating system. In Mac OS 9, application preferences were part of the core operating system folder (assuming multi-user mode was not used).

There is one core set of PowerCADD preferences which holds both the PowerCADD and WIldTOOLs application level preferences.

When trouble shooting possible problems, it can often be helpful Quit PowerCADD and remove the PowerCADD Defaults file or remove the com.engsw.PowerCADD.plist file from their current locations to the desktop. The next time you launch PowerCADD new files are created with clean factory defaults. If the problem goes away, you can trash the old files you removed.

The PowerCADD Preferences folder, located at User/Library/Preferences/PowerCADD, contains the following folders and files the first time PowerCADD launches. If you are upgrading from PowerCADD 6 and used Mac OS X your folder may contain additional custom items from PowerCADD 6.

• Custom Tool Palettes folder: Your personal Custom Tool palettes.
• DWG^? Templates folder: Your personal Line Weight to Color or Color to Line Weight templates saved when using the PowerDWG Translator.
• Gradient Templates folder: Your personal Gradient Templates you save using the Gradient Tool
• Data Templates file: Your personal Database Templates you save using the Set Data command.
• Default Tables file: Your personal Global Attribute values.
• PowerCADD 7 Defaults file: Settings related to general application level defaults such as tool palette and floating window positions.
• PowerCADD 7 Key Commands file: contains internal information used by PowerCADD to allow key command shortcuts.
• Custom Color Palettes file: Your personal PowerCADD color palette information
• Custom.Dict file: any words you add using the PowerCADD spell checker.
• PowerCADD Key Defaults file: Your personal key commands. If you do not assign any custom key commands this file is not created.

What To Do

Your PowerCADD Preferences are stored in this path:
Startup Disk/Users/UsersHomeFolder/Library folder/Preferences folder /PowerCADD folder/. The PowerCADD folder will contain all the application level preferences, custom color palettes, etc, for PowerCADD and WIldTools as described earlier.

There is a second file stored in this location:
StartupDisk/User/UsersHomeFolder/Library/Preferences/com.engsw.PowerCADD7.plist. This file stores a variety of application level preferences such as layer names used for the Layer Tools function.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Preview when dragging objects

Question:

How can I see a preview of objects I'm moving when dragging them in PowerCADD v6?

Requirements:

Mac OS^? X 10.2.x and PowerCADD v6.0.4
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS 10.4.4 recommended

Background

Prior to version 6 of PowerCADD (and Mac OS X), you could press the Option key when dragging to move objects. With the Option key pressed you saw a preview of all the selected objects. When the Option key wasn't pressed you saw only a dimmed bounding box defining the extents of the objects selected.

With the introduction of Mac OS X and PowerCADD v6, pressing the Option key when dragging an object will now duplicate the selected object(.

When you have multiple objects selected in PCadd v6 and you begin a drag to move operation, the object you immediately moused down on will be previewed and a dimmed bounding box defining the extents of the remaining selected objects is displayed.

Note:in PowerCADD v6 you also have a preference allowing you to enable or disable High Quality Drags. Typically, High Quality Drags is disabled (unchecked as shown in this screen shot) to help increase application performance by simplifying the image redrawn to screen when moving objects.

What to do

If you'd like to see a preview of all selected objects when performing a move by dragging operation, press the Control Key. When the Control key is pressed, all objects are previewed. When the Control key is released, only the object you immediately pressed the mouse button down upon will be previewed.

This demo movie (296KB download) shows the differences when we did this: (need movie help?)

1. selected all the items to be moved
2. pressed the mouse button down on one of the selected objects and started to drag
3. notice the move cursor appears and only the object we moused down upon is previewed as we drag. All other objects are described by a dimmed rectangle defining the extents of the selected objects.
4. observe that pressing the cmd>Control Key as we drag the item causes all selected objects to be previewed as we perform our move by dragging operation

A special note regarding bitmaps:
If the selection set contains a bitmap then there are two important nuances to remember:

1. If a bitmap is part of the selection set and you mouse down on the bitmap to drag and move objects, then all objects are obscured by the bitmap. This is normal behavior. Simply press the Control key as described above and all objects will be previewed in the correct order.
2. If a bitmap is part of a select set and you mouse down on an object other than the bitmap to drag and move objects then only the selected object is previewed as described earlier. Simply press the cmd>Control key and all objects, including the bitmap, will be previewed in the correct order.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Show Location and Grid Snap Settings

Question

How can Show Location and Grid Snap settings assist me in my drawing and design process?

Requirements

PowerCADD v6 and Mac OS^? X Panther
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.4) or newer recommended

Background

There are a wide range of conditions where Show Location and Grid Snap Settings can make the creation of accurate geometry quick and easy. The PowerCADD manual (Printed or PDF^?) has excellent descriptions of these core features and should be referenced for additional information. This article will provide some general information to spark your imagination and give you a sense of how the information might help speed up your drawing process.

Show Location: can be useful as it tells you where you are on the drawing page. This information can be useful for measuring distances without using drawing or dimension tools or to help create geometry in a particular location. (see Layout menu > Drawing Setup > Show tab > Location check box)

Grid Snap Settings: are useful as the set the incremental value by which an object's size will increase when it's drawn, resized or reshaped. To be of value, Grid Snap must be turned on. Note, we ALWAYS recommend having Grid Snap turned on when drawing, this is just one of the many reasons. (see Layout menu > Drawing Setup > Snap tab > Grid check box). This becomes particularly valuable when you need to create fast, accurate, design layout diagrams. For example, if you are drawing a floor plan or elevation to a scale of 1/2"=1'-0" , setting a grid snap value of 3" means objects are be snapped in 3" increments when drawn. Drawing a line, for example, would see it's length increase from 3" to 6" to 9", etc., as the mouse is dragged to define the objects length.

What To Do

In the following example we demonstrate how you could use the Show Location (when set to Delta X, Delta Y) and Grid Snapping can be used to draw a line which starts from the corner of a building and ends at a particular delta X,Y location. Grid Snapping allows us to draw the object simply by reading the values in the Edit Window and Show Location indicator. Please note, we are using this example for illustration purposes only of how the techniques might be applied together. If you are wanting to draw objects a specific offset distance, there are other techniques including using Offset Snapping discussed in this section of our website which are likely more efficient.

Demo Movie (500KB download) (need movie help?) As you watch the above demonstration movie, please pay particular attention to the following:

1. Show Location: We turn this on using the Drawing Setup settings and click on it to toggle between display states. Notice when we begin the drawing operation how the Edit Window and Show Location both tell us where we are in space and the objects size (in this case line length)
2. Snap Window: We have opened the snap window (top left) which provides visual feedback as to the current object snap state. Notice as we mouse over the Vertex snap is automatic. We could have also forced an End snap by pressing E on the keyboard
3. Drawing Setup Grid Snap: note we have set the grid snap to 3". As we draw, notice the Edit Window shows the object length jumping in 3" increments. Setting the value to 1" would jump object dimensions in 1" increments. For illustration we've shown a drawing setup scale of 1/2" =1'-0"
4. Visual Feedback: notice as we draw the Show Location zeroed the Delta X, Delta Y when we started to draw. Notice it displays the values on the fly as we drag the mouse to draw. We can simply read the values in the Show Status location and release the mouse when we have reached the desired location

This is one way - there are easier ways to achieve a similar effect but this should give you a sense on how the Grid Snap Settings and Show Location can provide important visual feedback and assist in data entry.

Demo Movie (180KB download) to start drawing a line from a specified delta x, delta y offset. (need movie help?) In this example we did this:

1. turned on show status as per pervious example
2. clicked the mouse at the corner of the building (notice delta x, delta y were zeroed in the show status field, bottom left of screen)
3. we positioned the mouse on screen where delta x, delta y were at the desired spot and clicked the mouse
4. we choose the Continuous Line tool
5. notice were we put the curser - far away from the spot we clicked in step (3)
6. we mouse down and drag to start to draw - the line automatically started from the x,y location specified in step (3)

Since the Continuous Line tool starts drawing from the last place we clicked (the last mouse down location), setting the start point was as simple as reading the values in the Show Location indicator and clicking the mouse (again, an Offset Snap is likely the better choice for this type of operation but it does allows us to demonstrate the Continuous Line tool which is rare).

We hope that helps provide you with a few options on how to Show Location might be useful. We also suggest you experiment with the different Show Location states. For example how setting Show Location to length and angle could be used, in conjunction with Object Snapping, to accurately measure distances in a drawing without drawing objects. We also suggest you try different Grid Snap settings to see just what a huge time saver they can be in creating modular geometry --this feature alone is a valuable timesaver once you understand the implications!

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Simulate Thin Lines :: PowerCADD

Question

My coworker doesn't like the Simulate Thin Lines feature and I do. Is there any way to have my Simulate Thin Lines setting override someone else's when I open their drawing?

Requirements:

PowerCADD v6 or PowerCADD v7
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS^? 10.4.4 recommended

Background

The short answer to the question is No. The same answer would also apply to any setting that is part of Drawing Setup and here's why.

With the introduction of PowerCADD 6, Engineered Software introduced the Simulate Thin Lines feature to take advantage of how Quartz graphics in Mac OS X can render objects to screen. That feature is still there in PowerCADD 7 (for specifics about this feature review your PowerCADD user manual).

It's important to remember Preferences and Drawing Setup settings are fundamentally different in where they are stored and how they affect a drawing. Understanding the fundamental differences between the two tells us why the simple No answer to the question is what it is:

Preferences:

Settings assigned in PowerCADD menu > Preferences... are saved at the application level and are stored locally with a specific Mac OS X user ID on your computer (User/Library/Preferences/PowerCADD/PowerCADD 7 Defaults). Those settings are applied to every drawing opened under that Mac OS X user ID.

Drawing Setup:

Settings assigned in Layout menu > Drawing Setup... are saved at the drawing file level. These values are retained when the file is opened by anyone else, on any computer or under any Mac OS X user ID.

What To Do

In this particular set of circumstances, the Simulate Thin Lines option is a Drawing Setup setting in both PowerCADD 6 and PowerCADD 7. As such, there is no way to automatically replace your Simulate Thin Lines setting with someone else's.

For example: If you coworker opens a drawing and changes Layout menu > Drawing Setup > Show tab > Simulate Thin Lines to Off and Saves the drawing. Then the next time you open that same drawing, the settings are remembered. You will physically have to turn Simulate Thin Lines back On again if that's how you like to work.

The only work around we can offer is chatting amongst yourselves, and agreeing on a standard. Hopefully understanding why the situation is the way it is will be of some help. Aside from using Applescript and GUI^? scripting tools to automate the process (which we don't think is practical), unless Engineered Software physically moves the Simulate Thin Lines settings from Drawing Setup to Preferences there's no way to automatically change that settings once a drawing is saved.

Hint: There have been some big improvements with respect to the saving of Window positions being OS X user ID smart in PowerCADD 7 that are worth exploring in the manual.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support by buying us coffee, lunch, or dinner. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Switching between Open Drawings

Question

Is there a shortcut I can use to switch between the drawings I have open in PowerCADD?

Requirements

PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS^? X Tiger or newer recommended

Background

PowerCADD let's you switch between open drawings by choosing a drawing from the Window menu. However, there is an even easier way!

Mac OS X has several hidden gems that apply to every application. Using a key command shortcut to switch between open files in any application is one of those hidden gems. What we'll describe here is an easy way to toggle (switch) between the open drawing windows in PowerCADD, but the same technique also works with other applications in Mac OS X; give it a go

What To Do

When you have multiple drawings open in PowerCADD, do this:

1. Press Command + Tilde

The Tilde key is that funny squiggly symbol that is just above the Tab key and just below the Esc key in the upper left corner of your keyboard.

2. Result: The next drawing in the list is made active. The previous drawing window remains open.
3. Repeat the key sequence in step (1) to toggle/switch/cycle through each open drawing

As simple as that is; it's easy to miss and is real time saver if you need to work with multiple drawings open at the same time.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak