Drawing sheet (edit and keep)

A drawing sheet is an engineering drawing that stays with your design. It starts as the automatic AS 1100 drawing, then you change it: move the views, delete the dimensions you do not want, add your own, write notes and fill in the title block. It is saved in your design file. When you change the model, the views and dimensions change too.

How to use it#

1. Click Export, then Drawing sheet (edit and keep). In the Engineering drawing (PDF) dialog, Edit on a drawing sheet starts a sheet with the options you chose there.
2. Drag a view to move it. The Top view stays lined up above the Front view, and the Right view beside it, as third-angle projection needs. Moving Front moves them all.
3. Click an automatic dimension and press Delete to remove it. Restore deleted dimensions brings them back.
4. Add your own dimensions with Dimension (D). See below.
5. Add notes with Note (N): click empty paper for a note, or click the model for a note with a leader arrow. Type the words in the box on the right.
6. Fill in the Title block boxes. Empty boxes fill themselves in with your design name, your name and class, and the date.
7. Click PDF (all sheets). Print it at 100% (actual size), so the scale is right.

Dimensions#

1. Click Dimension (D).
2. Click an edge to dimension its length. Or click a corner, or the centre of a circle, in any view but the isometric, then a second one in the same view.
3. Move the pointer to choose the kind: above or below the two points gives a horizontal dimension, beside them a vertical one, and past a corner an aligned one (along the line between them). A level edge always gives a horizontal one, an upright edge a vertical one. Click where it goes.
4. For a hole or a round, click the edge of the circle instead. You get its diameter (Ø), or the radius (R) of an arc. Click where the size goes.
5. For an angle, click an edge, then a second edge. Move the pointer into the angle you want (the lines make four), and click where the arc goes. Or click three corners: the angle is measured at the middle one.

The size always comes from the model. Drag a dimension to move its line out or in and its number along. Click it to change its kind under Selected. If the model changes so much that a corner a dimension used has gone, the dimension turns orange and stays where it was. Delete it and add it again. Orange dimensions are not printed.

Auxiliary views#

A sloping face, such as the slope of a wedge or a bevelled edge, looks squashed in the Front, Top and Right views. An auxiliary view looks square onto it, so it shows at its true size and its sizes can be dimensioned.

1. Click Auxiliary (A).
2. In a view where the sloping face shows as a sloping line, click that line. The face lights up as you point at it.
3. The AUXILIARY VIEW appears beside that view, turned so it lines up with the slope, as AS 1100 projects it. Drag it to move it nearer or further away; it stays in line.

Assembly drawings#

In Drawing of, choose Assembly (parts list from the Assembly). The parts list then comes from the Assembly workspace's bill of materials: every part with how many you need, and bought hardware (screws, hinges, dowels) listed as what to buy. The isometric view gets a numbered balloon for each row of the list: a circle with the item number and a leader that ends in a dot on the part.

• Drag a balloon to where it reads best. Its leader keeps pointing at the part, and it moves with the view.
• Click a balloon and press Delete to take it off. Restore deleted dimensions brings it back.
• An assembly sheet starts with just the isometric view, as big as the paper allows. Tick other views to add them.
• Position draws the assembly as it is now, or at one of its named positions (a lid open, a drawer out).
• Exploded pulls the parts apart by the Assembly's explode steps: every step, or up to the one you choose. Balloons, views and your own dimensions follow the parts.
• With no assembly yet, the parts are drawn where they are in the Part workspace and the list groups them by size.

Options#

Sheets#

Click + Sheet for another sheet, such as one part on its own at a bigger scale, or a section. PDF (all sheets) saves every sheet in one PDF, and the title block says 1 OF 2. SVG and DXF save the sheet you are on. The DXF is 1:1 in millimetres, for other CAD programs or a laser engraver.

Tips#

• The arrow keys move what is selected by 1 mm (Shift for 10 mm). On this sheet lists every view, dimension and note, so you can select one without the mouse. Ctrl+Z undoes in the drawing.
• Scroll to zoom. Drag empty paper, or right-drag, to move around the sheet. F fits the whole sheet.
• Undo in the Part workspace does not undo your drawing.

If it does not work#

• The FRONT view runs off the sheet. Drag it clear. Drag the view back onto the paper, choose a smaller scale, or click Reset layout.
• 1 dimension lost the corner or circle it measured. Delete the orange dimension and add it again.
• The part this sheet draws is not in the model any more. Choose another part in Drawing of.