Tips and Tricks for use with Microspot MacDraft #5

Tips and Tricks for use with Microspot MacDraft #5:

General Use of MacDraft

I have a common set of items that I use in my drawings, that are not your typical symbols. What’s the best way for me to store these items in MacDraft?

Speeding up your design process is something that has become expected in the design industry, it is important to people that they can perform their task with speed and efficiency. Being able to store your commonly used items can help to increase your productivity, as you do not have to draw them every time you want to use them. So MacDraft has the new Library palette to help you. All you need to do is create a library of your own in the Library palette and drag the items that you use regularly in that library. To do this use the following:

1. Get all of the items that you want to use in one document. (This will speed up the creation of a Library).
2. Go to the Library palette and at the bottom left of the palette, click the gear symbol.
3. In the pop-up that appears, select the New Library option.
4. A Save dialog will appear. Give the Library a name and a destination to save it to and click Save (Save your libraries somewhere easy to locate. Maybe create a folder on your desktop called My MacDraft Libraries).
5. The new library will appear in the library palette. Make sure the new library is selected and drag the items you want into the library window.

Tips and Tricks for use with Microspot MacDraft #4

Tips and Tricks for use with Microspot MacDraft #4:

General Use of MacDraft

Snapping objects to the End, Midpoint and Center of others?

MacDraft has a set of key commands that are usually used for snapping of objects when moving or drawing. However these commands can also be used when moving an object. You can also snap an object to another’s End, Mid and Center point, or snap it to another objects handle.

• To snap any part of an object to an objects End, Mid or Center point, simply drag the object and hold the E key down to snap to the End point, the M key down to snap to the Mid-point and the C key down to snap to the Center.

• To snap the handle of one object to another objects End, Mid or Center point, you need to hold the Command and Option key down, then drag the object from the handle you wish to snap, then release the Command and Option keys and hold the E key down to snap to the End point, the M key down to snap to the Mid-point and the C key down to snap to the Center.

 

Tips and Tricks for use with Microspot MacDraft #3

Tips and Tricks for use with Microspot MacDraft #3:

General Use of MacDraft

Can I quickly duplicate my objects without the menu?

Yes you can… with the new version of MacDraft we have tried to bring familiar and consistent options to our users. So in this case we have given you the ability to duplicate your objects using the well known Option-Drag method. This has been used widely throughout the software market, mainly in graphical applications and has become an expected feature. Simply hold the Option (alt) key down and drag an object to duplicate it.

Tips and Tricks for use with Microspot MacDraft #2

Tips and Tricks for use with Microspot MacDraft #2:

General Use of MacDraft

How do I resize my images without effecting their dpi?

For years it has been our plan to bring image editing and manipulation to our users in MacDraft. In addition to all of the available editing options, the Resize palette has had an update. To be able to resize the images you can do it via its dpi, pixel size or unit size. You can lock either of these values, so that they are not affected by changes made to the others. The following is an explanation of the differences between locking the values:
– Locking the Resolution: Resizing the Units or the Pixels with the Resolution locked, will physically change the size of the image on the screen.

– Locking the Units: Resizing the Pixels or Resolution will re-sample the image decreasing or increasing the resolution. Locking the Pixels: Resizing the Units or Resolution will re-sample the image decreasing or increasing the resolution.

 

Tips and Tricks for use with Microspot MacDraft #1

Tips and Tricks for use with Microspot MacDraft #1:

General Use of MacDraft

What if I always want to start drawing my lines or shapes with a certain Pen/ Fill color?

It is quite a common thing to use the same line and fill color when you are drawing objects in MacDraft. You can set these options as defaults for your MacDraft documents through the preferences. Simply change the Attributes for the Fill, Pattern, and line settings, go to the MacDraft menu and select Preferences. Click the Document Preferences tab and make sure that the “Fill Pattern and Colors” check box and “Line Settings” check box are checked on. Then click the Ok button. Once this has been done, every time that you open a new document, these setting will apply to the objects that you draw.

 

Tips and Tricks for use with DWG Viewer #3:

Tips and Tricks for use with Microspot DWG Viewer #3:

Try and keep the drawing tidy.

When annotating the try not to overcrowd it with large amounts of text.

Try to keep the annotations to precise points and key aspects that you want the reader to know. If you want to give more information, put an star symbol (*) and a number next to the point and then add additional information at the edge of the DWG drawing.

I have always found this a good help, because I can then keep the annotation on the drawing to a minimum, making the drawing itself much clearer.

Tips and Tricks for use with DWG Viewer #2:

Tips and Tricks for use with Microspot DWG Viewer #2:

Layouts should always be opened in 1:1 scale.

If you do decide to open a Layout as appose to the Model, then you should always keep it in the 1:1 scale, as that is the default scale for all layouts. If you do select a different scale you could find that the DWG file does not display properly and some of the data in the document may be not look how you would expect it to.

However if you open a file in Model then you can either select the scale that you know the document is in or leave it as Automatic. Automatic will take on the scale that is stored in the DWG files data.

Tips and Tricks for use with DWG Viewer #1:

Tips and Tricks for use with Microspot DWG Viewer #1:

Opening a document in a layout or Model.

To some people the list of layouts can be confusing. The layouts are specific views of the DWG file that were created in the CAD package you used. For example if you have created a drawing in AutoCAD that is a house plan with a set of elevations in different layouts, then DWG viewer will list those views separately as well as the Model option. So each of those Layouts is a specific view and the Model option is the whole set of views in one document. It is best to use the Model section unless you are specifically looking at a particular view. Remember that if you have a frame around you complete drawing for materials list, CAD data, etc the Layouts will not show this, it’s the Model option that will.

Tips and Tricks for Drawing 3D Technical Illustrations #10

Tips and Tricks for use with Microspot MacDraft #10:

Drawing 3D Technical Illustrations

The illusion of Shadows and Lighting on a surface with MacDraft illustrations.
This is a really useful technique with any illustration you are trying to create. On some surfaces depending on the material effect you are trying to create, there will be some shine effects. These are slightly different to the lighting effect explained in tip 9 but work on the same principle. If you have a curved surface and light shines on it, there will be a color change as well as a shining effect. When I create a shine there are two steps that i go through, one is to create the shape of the area that is to be the shine effect, I fill it white and then change its opacity depending on its intensity. The image below shows and example of this.

You can also use this same principle to create the illusion of a shadow on a surface, as the key thing to remember that when there is a light source not only do you get a shine effect, but you also get an absence of light. These sections can be created in the same way, the only difference is that I make the color black as appose to white. You can also see this in the other image shown below. Just remember when doing this to keep to the same rule with the lighting direction and adjust the opacity to suit the illustration and the curvature of the surface.

Tips and Tricks for Drawing 3D Technical Illustrations #9

Tips and Tricks for use with Microspot MacDraft #9:

Drawing 3D Technical Illustrations

How to give a flat image depth simply by using the correct colors.
To some people this may be an obvious method to use, but there are some people who do not grasp the idea of using different shades of colors to depict depth. The concept is very easy to get used to and understand, you just need to think about how a real 3D object will look. To keep it simple, lets consider drawing a box in MacDraft as shown in the image.

As you can see from the 2 box images above they show one drawn with only outlines and another with color. You should be able to notice the obvious difference where the linear drawn looks like a flat image, whereas adding color has given the larger more depth, hence the illusion of a 3D shape. The key to success when trying to create this illusion is picking a direction from which the light is coming from. Always keep this direction the same. Then decide it’s intensity. Fro there you can start to pick the shade of color you want to use.

In this example I have chosen the light to come from the right hand side and angled down on the box. As a result, the color on the top of the box is lighter than all of them and the one on the right is slightly darker than that. The side that is less effected by the light source is darker than all of the sides.