Chapter 6  The Settings Menu.

6.1  Color.
6.2  Hidden Line Settings and Line Type.
6.3  Plot Scale.
6.4  Shape Library.
6.5  Text Height.
6.6  Default Settings.

Chapter 6

The Settings Menu.

Note: the Draw menu was covered in chapter 2.

The settings menu contains several necessary options. Some of these effect only new objects added to the drawing after the setting is changed while others effect objects already on the drawing board.

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6.1 Color.

The color setting effects only new objects. Once set to a particular color all objects added to the drawing board will be in that color. When the color setting is changed, none of the objects on the board will change but new objects will be in the new color.

  1. If it is not currently loaded, load the practice drawing.

  2. Select "Color" from the "Settings" menu and then select "Red" from the sub menu.

  3. Alternatively, type Shift R.

  4. The words "Draw Color = Red" will appear on the title bar of the screen.

  5. Draw a short line somewhere on the drawing board. The line should be red.

  6. Type Shift Y or select "Yellow" from the "Color" sub menu.

  7. The words "Draw Color = Yellow" will appear on the title bar of the screen.

  8. Draw another short line somewhere near the first. This line will be Yellow.

Notice that existing objects didn't change color. To learn how to change the color of existing objects see section 4.3.

Shortcut keys to change colors.

Press
Keys		 To Change
to Color
Shift W White.
Shift R Red.
Shift Y Yellow.
Shift G Green.
Shift C Cyan.
Shift B Blue.
Shift M Magenta.

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6.2 Hidden Line Settings and Line Type.

The Line Type setting selects whether a line that is drawn will be solid or Dashed (Hidden). The Hidden Line Settings determines the length of dashes and the length of gaps between dashes in a hidden or dashed line. The settings effect all hidden lines on the drawing, new or old.

  1. Open the "Settings" menu. The item "Line Type Reverts to Solid After One Line" should be checked. Click on it.

  2. Again open the "Settings" menu and the above item should no longer be checked.

  3. Select "Line Type" from the open menu and click on "Dashed (Hidden)" from the submenu.

  4. Draw a line that is 2 inches long. It should be made up of 8 dashes.

  5. Select "Hidden Line Settings" from the "Settings" menu or press F12.

  6. The blue entry box will open and the following will appear in it. "0.14,0.12". All characters will be selected.

  7. Type ".07,.06" without the quotes and press the TAB key. Notice that the line changed to be made up of 15 shorter dashes.

Maybe someday the hidden line parameters will be stored with each line so different lines on the same drawing can have different dash and space lengths. That someday is not today.

If you save the drawing, the "Line Type" settings will be saved with the file. The "Line Type Reverts to Solid After One Line" setting and the "Line Type" setting will not. They will return to "Solid" and if the "Line Type" is changed to "Dashed (Hidden)" it will revert back to "Solid" after one line is drawn. This too may pass.

The line type may be changed from the keyboard by typing shift H for a hidden line or shift S for a solid line. The type of line will be displayed in the title bar as "Line Type = xxxxx". If the "Line type reverts to solid after drawing one line" is checked the display in the title bar will change after one hidden line is drawn.

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6.3 Plot Scale.

Plot Scale sets the scaling of the HPGL file. This is of importance to me even though I don't have an HPGL plotter. I convert the file using Corel Photo Paint 8. That version is long out of print but it is likely you can find a substitute. In the conversion process the pen width can be set. If this value is set too large the converted drawing will look the same as it would with a pen with a blunted point, the lines will be too wide, text will be hard to read and the drawing will just look messy.

If the pen width is set too small the lines may be less than a pixel wide which means they may disappear altogether. The drawing scale as well as the pen width enters into this. I have found that a drawing scale of 2 and a pen width of 0.5 millimeters will result in an appearance similar to figures 2.1 and 2.2. You would think that a scale setting of 1 and a pen width of 0.25 would act the same but you would be wrong. For some reason the conversion routines aren't linear.

To change the plot scale do this.

  1. Select "Plot Scale" from the "Settings" menu or press Control F3.

  2. You will be prompted "Enter new plot scale factor." Type the new number in the box and press the TAB key.

The plot scale is saved with each file so different files can have different scale factors without having to change them once they have been set.

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6.4 Shape Library.

Shape files are ordinary dwg files. They are distinguished from other drawing files by the first two characters of the file name and the file's location. For example, the shapes for laying out a chassis begin with Cl. You could just throw them in with all the other drawing files but if you had a drawing file named "Clock Face" it would appear in the list of chassis layout shapes. It is best to place the shape files in a folder where no other drawing files will be placed. One such place is in "C:\Program Files\MaxCAD". Another place is "My Documents\MaxCAD\Shapes and Fonts". The "MaxCAD folder can contain other folders named, for example, "Chassis Layouts", "PC Layouts", "Schematics", etc. In either case there should be only shape and font files, and no other dwg files in the folder.

To see what shape libraries you have installed on your computer select "Shape Library" from the "Settings" menu or type Control F4.

A list of all shape libraries will come up giving the following information.

  1. "Shape Prefix", the two characters that the file name begins with. It is case sensitive.

  2. "Number of Files", how many files have that prefix.

  3. "Shapes are used for" is a description I have programmed for the shapes that are shipped with MaxCAD. If you have created a shape library of your own this entry will say "User Defined".

  4. "Example File Name" gives the last file in the list having that prefix.

The two letter prefix of the current shape library will be shown in the box at the top of the drawing board. You can type a new prefix in the box, be sure to observe case, or click on an item to select from the list.

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6.5 Text Height.

Although the default text height is currently set to 0.1 you can change it at any time. Changing this value will not effect existing text. It will effect only new text items placed on the drawing board. Each text item has its height stored with it. To change the text height select "Text Height" from the "Settings" menu or press Control F5.

  1. Since the practice drawing is rather full, type Control N.

  2. Type T and place some text on the board.

  3. Type Control F5 and change the text height to 0.2.

  4. Type T and place some more text on the board.

  5. Type Control F5 and change the text height to 0.3.

  6. Type T and place some more text on the board.

Note that each time you changed the text height the size of the existing text was not changed but the new text was displayed in the new height setting.

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6.6 Default Settings.

When you select "Default Settings" from the "Settings" menu a dialog box will open. This dialog box allows the user to set the conditions that exist at program startup and when a new drawing is started. The table below gives a description of each item and it's setting in the program as shipped.

Label Shipped Value Description
Limits: Lower Left Corner X,Y -5,-3.75 Lower left corner of limit settings.
Limits: Upper Right Corner X,Y 5,3.75 Upper right corner of limit settings.
Grid Spacing 0.4 Distance between grid dots.
Grid On/Off On Turns grid on or off.
Snap Spacing 0.1 Sets both X and Y values of snap.
Snap Off/X/Y/Both Both Selects whether snap is off, X only, Y only,
Or Both X and Y.
Hidden Line Dash 0.14 Sets the length of the hidden line dash.
Hidden Line Gap 0.12 Sets the length of the gaps in a hidden line.
Plot Scale 2 Sets the scale of a plot in the HTML file.
Drawing File Path C:\My Documents\MaxCAD\ Path to the location of your drawing files. *
Default Text Height 0.1 Default height for new text.
Font Descender 0.4 Sets the fraction of the above line font that the
descenders extend below the line.
Font Chr. File Prefix F- Two character combination that begins names
of font character files.
Font File Name Schematic.fnt Name of the file that all font character files
are compiled into at program startup.
Shape File Prefix Sc File name prefix of shapes in the current shape library.
Shape and Font Path \ Sets the path to all shape and font files. *
Board Color Black Sets the color of the drawing board.
Only Black and White are allowed.
The White setting is not fully supported.
Drawing Color Black or White Sets the default color at program startup or
after selecting "New" from the "Files" menu.
Grid Color Green Sets the color of the grid dots.
Select Color Gray Sets the color an object turns when selected.
Currently, the only allowed color is gray.
Line Type reverts to solid
after drawing one hidden line 		Checkbox Checked Forces line type to revert to solid after a single
hidden line is drawn.

* This may be different on your system.

Most of these settings can be changed elsewhere in the program while a drawing is in progress but when ever a new drawing is started, these settings will take effect.

It is not a good idea to change any of these settings in the middle of work on a drawing. When you are working on a drawing it is very likely that you have changed many of the settings. If you change any of the default settings all settings will be changed to the default values when you click the Save button.

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