The Arc Edit window ( Drawing Editor )

To open this window :

Arc Add ***
Arc Add Center, Start, End ***
Arc Add Center, Start, Angle ***
Arc Add Continuous ***
Arc Add 3 Point ***
Arc Add Ellipse ***
Arc Edit or double-click an arc
Arc Edit (multiple)
Arc Edit All

For operations marked *** , User and Site Options > Drawings > " : Always show Arc Edit window " must be checked for this window to open.

Also see :

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" Copy " " Paste " " Save " " Load " buttons :

  • You'll find buttons like these at the top of this window. They apply to all user-editable settings that are on this window. Click here for more information.
  • You can " Copy " ( ) the settings on this window, then change the " Arc__of " number you are editing using the VCR buttons, then " Paste " ( ) those settings to the newly selected arc.
  • " Save " ( ) saves a "form" file to the form/arc folder that is used by your current version of this program. Give the form a name that will help users in other Jobs on your network identify its purpose. " Load " ( ) changes all settings on this window to those settings that are stored in the file that you select.
  • " Paste " and " Load " replace mixed entries to a single field with a single entry. " Copy " and " Save " ignore fields with mixed entries, treating them as if they have no entry or do not exist.

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------ Settings ------

Radius: The distance (in the primary dimension " Units " or other units ) between the center of the arc and any point on its perimeter.

These four arcs have start and end points in the same locations but different radiuses, which are noted above each arc.

Note: Changing the " Radius " but not changing the " Included angle " results in the included angle being recalculated after you press " OK ."

Included angle: The angle (> 0 and < 360 degrees) made at the intersection at the center of the arc's circle by radii from the start and end points of the arc. If, in your current drawing, you hover the arc with your mouse pointer ( ), these two radii are depicted as blue lines.

The start point of an arc is the point on the arc that is clockwise from all other points on the arc. The end point is the point most counterclockwise from all other points on the arc.

Changing the " Include angle " moves the end point. The start point remains anchored.

X rotation: The positive or negative number of degrees of X axis rotation ( 90 to -90 ) that the arc you are adding or editing is to be rotated with respect to the X screen axis .

' 0 ' (zero) means no X-axis rotation of the arc. A ' positive or negative number ' of degrees flattens an arc.

Z rotation: The positive or negative number of degrees of Z axis rotation ( 90 to -90 ) that the arc you are adding or editing is to be rotated with respect to the Z screen axis .

' 0 ' (zero) means no Z rotation of the arc. A ' positive number ' of degrees rotates the arc clockwise. A ' negative number ' of degrees rotates the arc counterclockwise.

Relocate center of arc: or . This option is disabled (grayed out) if you are editing multiple arcs. It lets you change the " Radius " and " Included angle " of an arc by relocating the arc's center point in your current drawing. The start and end points of the arc do not change when you relocate it's center.

bindings
These four arcs have start and end points in the same locations but different centers. The radius of each arc is noted above it.

If you check this box ( ) then press " OK " to close this window, Locate- Pan -Return mouse bindings become active along with various Locate options, and you are prompted to relocate the center of the arc When you re-open this window after left-click ( Locate ) to reposition the arc's center, you will find that the arc's " Radius " and " Included angle " have changed, and that this option is no longer checked.

This box is not checked ( ) when this window opens.

Line type: No button is pressed if you are editing multiple arcs that have different dash patterns.

The button that is pressed sets the line type (dash pattern) of the arc you are adding or editing.

Pen color: 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 . No button is pressed if you are editing multiple arcs that are drawn with different pens .

The selected button sets the printing pen number (and on-screen display color) of the arc. Line Weights assigns a particular thickness to each pen number.

Attached to view: A number designating the view that this arc is attached to. This applies mainly to member details . For instance, a column detail may have a view of face A, face B and face C. It may also have various section views (Section A-A, Section B-B, Section C-C). All graphical objects that are in a particular view are assigned the same number. The only other type of drawing on which you might find multiple views is a submaterial detail .

Assigning the correct number to an object (line, weld symbol, label, etc.), prevents Shorten and Unshorten problems on submaterial details and member details . Automatically detailed submaterial details and member details are the two Drawing Editor drawing types that can have multiple views.

 

To show a view's number, you can add the X-Y-Z Display to your toolbar. An alternative decoration you can add to display view numbers is the X-Y Dual Show/True Display .

In the Drawing Editor , the X-Y-Z Display shows the view number that the point location target ( ) is over.

Troubleshooting: If you Unshorten a drawing then Shorten , only to find that objects are repositioned in a way that seems wrong, the problem might be that the objects are attached to a view that is not the view that they should be attached to. A good troubleshooting method is to select all of the objects that you believe should be attached to the same view, then right-click ( Menu ) and choose " Edit " on the menu . This will open the Multi-Items Edit window. Look at the " Attached to view " field on that window. If that field is gray (shows no view number), then that field has a mixed entry , indicating that objects in your selection have have two or more different view numbers. Entering the desired view number to the " Attached to view " multi-edit field assigns all objects in your selection that one view number.

View number assignment is fairly random. While view numbers assigned during auto detailing are generally the same as the numbers assigned to views in member isolation (or material isolation's edit views mode ), there are cases where that general one-to-one correspondence will not hold. Also, while the main view of a member detail is almost always view 0, the other views are assigned numbers as they are added, and since the order in which views are added is arbitrary, there is little correspondence between a view's number and its type.

How can objects be assigned wrong view numbers? When a user adds an object to a drawing on which there are multiple views (a member detail or a submaterial detail), it is the responsibility of that user to ensure that the object is attached to the correct view. That sounds like an easy thing to do, but it isn't always so simple. Take, for example, a pointer . When a user adds a pointer using Objects > Pointers > Add , the user does not see the Pointer Edit window and therefore does not see the " Attached to view " entry field. Pointers can also be added using Paste , Paste at Original Location , Paste Repeatedly , Paste Special , Paste to Several , Add Standard Detail , Add Standard Detail to Several , Add Weld Combo , Hole Sym Combo , Label Combo , etc. Each of these tools is a different way for users to add a pointer to a wrong view.

Layer: The drawing layer (any layer given a " Name ") that the arc you are adding or editing will be drawn on after you press " OK " to close this window. If that layer happens to be hidden (not marked " Show "), the arc will disappear after the first Redraw .

Defaults: For an Arc Add operation, the default selection ( ) made here is the layer that was selected on the layer selection tool before you began this operation. For a Arc Edit operation, the selection is the layer that the object is currently on.

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For when you edit one arc and multiple arcs are in the drawing :

Arc _ of __ (not applicable to Add Arc or multi-edit) : The number of the one arc you are editing and the total count of all arcs in your current drawing. You can use the VCR buttons to select a different arc and edit it while still on this window. When an arc on a shown layer is selected, it is displayed in green (cyan if its actual color is green). The selected arc must be on a shown layer for it to be shown.

VCR buttons (first-previous-next-last) for selecting an arc to edit.

Note: If you change one arc, then select a different arc number, the first arc remains changed even if you press " Cancel " on this window.

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To close this window :

 

"OK" (or the Enter key) closes this window and completes the Arc Add or Arc Edit or Arc Edit (multiple) or Arc Edit All operation.

Defaults: When you press " OK ," the settings on this window -- except mixed entries -- become the default settings for the next arc you Add during this session of the Drawing Editor . Even if all you do is double-click an arc and press " OK " without making any changes on this window, this window's settings become the defaults for the next-added arc (exceptions: " Pen color " & " Line type " if you changed the Edit Palette in the meantime).

Note: After making changes to this window and pressing " OK ," you can still undo your changes by using Revert or Undo . If you Save to make your changes permanent, you can no longer Revert , but you can still Undo .

"Cancel" (or the Esc key or the button) closes this window without saving changes you have made. In the case where you selected one arc for editing but changed more than one arc, " Cancel " only applies to the arc currently selected as the " Arc _ of __ ."

Defaults: The settings on this window do not become the defaults for new arcs if you press " Cancel " to close this window (unless you used " Arc _ of __ ").

Tip 1: If you edited more than one arc using " Arc _ of __ ," then Undo (after you have closed this window) does undo all changes made using this window.

Tip 2: If you double-click an arc just to review it and don't want to set the defaults for to-be-added arcs, the best way to close this window is to press " Cancel. "

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