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Home > Tutorials > Tutorial 1 - Screen, Mouse & Keyboard

Tutorial 1 - Screen, Mouse and Keyboard

This section describes the various components that make up the screen. These are the:

Screen Layout

The screen is divided into several parts, as shown below.

Your layout won't necessarily look like this as we have enabled a number of optional items in order to pack the maximum amount of information into the image.

Specific areas of importance are explained below:

Marker

 

Screen Element and Description

A

Menu

Access various program functions by selecting menu items.

B

Pen, Layer, Linetype, Width and Height

These are buttons, combo boxes and edit fields where you can change drawing settings on the fly.

C

Prompt/Control Bar Area

This area displays prompts while working or, for more complicated procedures, displays a combination bar consisting of its own prompt area and various buttons, etc. for configuring settings while working.

D

Toolbars

These are user-defined bars containing shortcut buttons for the various functions. Toolbars can be docked on any edge of the main window, or can be floating. If the mouse cursor is hovered over a toolbar button, a help description for that button is displayed in the Status bar and, if held over the button long enough, a tooltip window also displays.

E

Properties Bar

This is used to quickly change various properties of the currently selected entity or entities. If no entity is currently selected, the property bar shows and enables changes to the current drawing settings (Pen, Layer, Linetype, Width and Height).

F

Drawing Area

This is where all drawing takes place. If the drawing area is subdivided into view ports then the active viewport, which is the one you can draw in, is outlined in yellow.

G

Paper Border

This indicates the extent of the defined paper. You would normally draw within this paper extent in order to correctly position your drawing when printing.

H

Last Snap/Jump Indicator

This cross marks the last position where some sort of snap or jump was completed. It will be the start position when moving the drawing cursor via the arrow keys or a polar jump.

I

Scrollbars

Use the scrollbars to pan the drawing vertically or horizontally, by half the screen for every click.

J

Drawing Plane Indicator

This is similar to the View Plane Indicator except that it uses coloured arrows to indicate the relevant axes. It relates to the plane on which drawing is currently taking place, which is not necessarily the same as the view plane. For instance, the view of a house might be set to the Southeast corner but you want to draw a door in the left side wall. In this case, the drawing plane would be set parallel to the wall and therefore does not match the view plane.

K

View Plane Indicator

Being a 3D CAD, your view of the drawing can be rotated to any angle. This indicator, which is a cube with sides marked T (for top), F (for front) and L (for left), gives you an idea of the current rotation of the drawing axes.

L

Ruler

This gives an indication of the current scale of the drawing, or the active view port.

M

Drawing/Layout Tabs

Each drawing allows one drawing page and multiple layout pages. Layout pages are used for printing, and normally contain some sort of view of the data in the drawing page. These tabs are used to switch between the drawing page and any existing layout page. Right-clicking one of these tabs opens a menu with options to insert new layout pages or to delete existing layouts.

N

Control Centre

This bar displays information relating to the current drawing.

O

Output Bar

This bar is used to display information relevant to certain tasks carried out.

P

Scale/Paper Indicator

AllyCAD works in a particular scale on a particular paper size, which are both user selectable. This indicator is just a reminder of what scale and paper size have been selected.

Q

Lock Indicator

The current cursor lock angle, if any, is displayed here.

R

Cursor Coordinate

This displays the current position of the mouse or digitiser cursor in X (horizontal), Y (vertical) and Z (elevation) planes.

S

Filter Toggle

This toggles the selection filter on or off. When toggling on, the entity selection filter is displayed which allows you to specify in detail what types of entity may be part of a selection set.

T

Visual Snap Toggle

This toggles the display of the Visual Snap indicator. When using a drawing function in conjunction with a snap mode (other than Freehand Snap) with this toggled on, a small marker is displayed to indicate where the snap point would be if you clicked on the mouse button or the first digitiser button.

U

DP/3D Snap Toggle

This toggles between snapping on the current drawing plane (DP) and snapping to a 3D coordinate. Normally the snap modes pick up the current elevation from the entity on which the snap is made. With DP snap toggled on, the elevation is determined by projecting the snap point onto the DP.

V

DP/World Coordinate Toggle

This toggles the Cursor Coordinate between displaying coordinates relative to the current drawing plane and true 3D coordinates.

W

Keyboard Indicators

Shows whether Caps Lock and Num Lock are on or not.

Prompt Area and Control Bar

Prompts display in the prompt area asking for input or telling you what to do. You type information, answer questions or select options in the Control Bar. There are several types of prompts and responses.

You Are Prompted to Enter a Point or Position

If you are prompted to enter a point or a position, for example the first point of a line:

  1. Position the cursor in the Drawing Area.

  2. Press [Enter] or click to accept the position.

You Are Prompted to Enter Information

Some prompts expect you to type information into the Control Bar.

In this example, the program is asking how far you want to move to the right after you have pressed the [Right Arrow] key. A default answer 10 is given.

  1. If you want to accept the default answer, click OK or press [Enter].

  2. If you want to change the default answer, simply type the answer you want. If the default answer is highlighted, it is automatically overwritten.

Alternatively, click in the white part of the Control Bar and press [Arrow] and [Backspace] to delete the default answer. Now type the answer and accept it by clicking OK or pressing [Enter].

  1. If you want to terminate the function, click Cancel .

Various Options are Displayed on the Control Bar

When you select some functions, a row of options appear on the Control Bar. You need to edit these options to your satisfaction before responding to the prompt in the Prompt Area.

  1. In this example, you need to select a symbol or block - either by name or by viewing it, and then specify the rotation, scale, mirror and snip options of the symbol.

  2. When you have done this, you can respond to the prompt:

Indicate block insertion point

  1. Position the cursor where you want the symbol to appear and press [Enter] or click to accept this position.

You Are Prompted to Enter a Polygon Around Something

In many functions, such as Select by Polygon, Stretch, etc, you are asked to enter a polygon around something. The function then operates on the part of the drawing inside this polygon. You can either draw a regular box around the part of your drawing to be operated on, or, if it is an irregular shape you can draw an irregular polygon around it.

To draw a regular box:

  1. You are prompted to:

Indicate polygon around elements to be selected

  1. Position the cursor at one corner of the box that will enclose the part of the drawing to be operated on, and then press [Enter] or click.

  1. You are prompted to:

Indicate next point of polygon (Right-click to finish with rectangle

  1. Move the cursor to the diagonally opposite corner of the box to enclose the part of the drawing to be operated on. As you move the cursor, it is attached to a box with a diagonal line through it.

  1. Right-click and select the Finish option from the popup menu.

  2. The function you are using resume.

To draw an irregular polygon around the part of the drawing to be operated on:

  1. You are prompted to:

Indicate polygon around elements to be selected

  1. Position the cursor at the first vertex of the polygon and press then [Enter] or click.

  1. You are prompted to:

Indicate next point of polygon (Right-click to finish with rectangle)

  1. Move the cursor to the next vertex on the polygon boundary. As you move the cursor, it is attached to a box with a diagonal line through it. Click to indicate the next vertex of the polygon.

  1. You are prompted to:

Indicate next point of polygon (Right-click to finish with rectangle)

  1. As you move the cursor, it displays a  polyline of the vertices. Indicate the next vertex and click.

  1. You are prompted to:

Indicate next point of polygon (Right-click to finish with rectangle)

  1. A closed polygon displays, based on the indicated vertices. Continue to enter polygon vertices. When you have entered the last vertex, right-click and select the Finish option.

  1. Right-click and select the Quit option to finish the selection process.

Pen Selection

To change the current pen, or colour:

  1. Click the current pen button on the Control Bar. The Colour Selection window displays.

 

Many colours won't display properly unless your graphics card is set to display 32 bit colour, also known as TrueColor.

  1. There is also a Colour toolbar, usually at the right side of the screen. This toolbar only lists the first 16 colour choices, unless you have selected the 31 pen toolbar option in the System Settings.

Line Style Display

The Line Style Display displays the currently selected line style. To change line style:

  1. Click the arrow to the right of the display. A list of line styles displays.

  2. Click the one you want to use.

  1. If you select the By Layer option, the program uses the line types assigned to each layer in the Layer Settings option.

  2. You can also change line type using Line Styles, or by double-clicking on your preferred line style in the Control Centre window.

Layer Display

The Layer Display displays the currently selected layer. Everything that you draw appears on this current layer. To change the current layer:

  1. Click the arrow to the right of the display. A list of layers appears.

  2. Click the one you want to use.

  1. You can also change the current layer using the Set Current Layer function. You can change the current layer and add further layers to your drawing using the Layer Settings function.

Toolbars

There are 24 toolbars, which can be displayed and positioned selectively.

  1. Select View ► Toolbars, or click the toolbar icon , to select which toolbars must be visible. A list with the names of the toolbars is displayed. Those that are currently visible have a tick next to them.

  1. Select or deselect the checkbox next to the names to display or hide the relevant toolbars.

  2. If you have made a toolbar visible you can position it anywhere on the screen. If you drag the toolbar very close to an edge of the screen, you see that it changes to align itself to that edge. Release the mouse button to dock it in that position.

Each icon in the toolbars represents a shortcut to a function. As you move the cursor over a button on a toolbar, a tooltip displays explaining the functions assigned to the button. The Smart Cursor Help on the Status Bar at the bottom of the CAD window also tells you what it does.

You can customise the toolbars using the Toolbar Editor.

Keyboard and Mouse

The keyboard and mouse are both used when drawing with Civl Designer 8.0.

Keyboard

The keyboard is used to input data, for example distances to move, coordinate to move to, measurements, text, etc. There are also a number of keyboard shortcut options or accelerator keys that can be used to activate functions in Civl Designer. The function assigned to each key is specified in the Cad.acc file. Use the Accelerator Editor to customise the shortcut keys.

Mouse

The mouse offers both left and right-click options. The left-click is the standard selection method.

   

If you right-clicked on the screen with no functions selected, you are presented with the following popup menu.

If you right-click when a draw function is selected, you are presented with the following popup menu.

The mouse wheel allows you to zoom in and out. If you roll the Mouse Wheel forward it zooms in on the area where the cursor is positioned. If you roll it backwards it zooms out about the area the cursor is positioned.

     

Double-click the mouse wheel to display the Screen toolbar displayed below.

Depress the mouse wheel and hold it down to pan the drawing around the position of the cursor.